Cross-Race Effect
We are better at recognizing faces of people belonging to our own racial group.
The cross-race effect (also known as other-race effect or own-race bias) is the tendency to more easily recognize faces of people of one's own racial group than faces of people of other racial groups. This effect arises from differential experience: we have more contact with members of our own group, making us better calibrated to distinguish within-group faces. It has significant implications for eyewitness misidentification in criminal cases.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Justice Eyewitness Error Eyewitness misidentifications are disproportionately common when the witness and suspect are of different racial backgrounds, a well-documented application of the cross-race effect in criminal justice.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
At a conference, Tom can effortlessly recall the business cards and conversations he had with attendees from his own racial group, but has a vague memory of interactions with others.
A real estate agent more accurately recalls the preferences and faces of clients from their own racial group, leading to more personalized service for them.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
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188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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