Same-race faces are perceived more holistically than other-race faces

People are better at recognizing same- than other-race faces but the theoretical explanation of this phenomenon is still controversial. Here we tested the hypothesis that the “other-race effect” is related to a reduced ability to encode configural information on other-race faces. Caucasian and Asian participants had to match whole faces to isolated facial features, or onto whole faces differing by a single feature, on both Caucasian and Asian faces. Participants performed better with whole faces as compared to isolated features, demonstrating a “holistic processing” of faces (Tanaka & Farah, 1993 Tanaka, J. and Farah, M. J. 1993. Parts and wholes in face recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology, 46A: 225–245. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). For Caucasian participants, this “whole/ part advantage” was observed only for Caucasian faces. Asian participants who had been living for about a year among Caucasians had a comparable whole/part advantage regardless the race of the faces. These results indicate that same-race faces are processed more holistically than other-race faces, as a result of experience. However, despite processing Caucasian faces as holistically as Asian faces in this paradigm, Asian subjects still presented a large other-race effect. This observation suggests that holistic encoding may be a necessary step in order to be able to recognize other-race faces efficiently, but that it is by no means sufficient to overcome the other-race face effect.