Racial ambiguity impairs holistic face processing: Evidence from racially distinctive and racially ambiguous faces

ABSTRACT

Humans possess a remarkable ability to efficiently process faces, a skill largely influenced by their experiences with individual faces. However, recent research has challenged the role of experience in holistic face processing. Our study examined the role of face-race experience in holistic face processing among Asian and White adults using Asian, White, and racially ambiguous faces. The findings showed that both Asians and Whites exhibited reliable holistic processing for their own-race faces but failed to exhibit this ability with racially ambiguous faces. Importantly, the failure was not solely due to the specific morphing procedure or response bias. These findings imply that face-race experience plays a crucial role in holistic processing. Notably, Asians maintained holistic processing for both own-race and other-race faces, whereas Whites only showed this for own-race faces, indicating differential impacts of face-race experience on holistic processing and highlight the need for further research across diverse cultural contexts.

Highlights

• Asian adults showed equivalent holistic processing with Asian and Caucasian faces

• Caucasian adults showed holistic processing with Caucasian faces but not with Asian faces

• Both Asian and Caucasian adults did not show holistic processing with racially ambiguous faces

KEYWORDS:

• racial ambiguity
• holistic processing
• composite-face effect
• face-race experience

Acknowledgments

We also thank Jolie Luk, Selena Li, and Chantelle Castelino for assisting in proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [grant number: RGPIN-2020-07129]; Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: LY20C090010, LY19C090006]; Fundamental Research Funds of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University [grant number: 2019Q075]; Zhejiang Province Education Science Planning Project [grant number: 2024SCG329].