Neural adaptation to faces reveals racial outgroup homogeneity effects in early perception
Contributed by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, May 13, 2019 (sent for review January 2, 2019; reviewed by Anne Krendl and Amy R. Krosch)
Significance
The tendency to view members of social outgroups as interchangeable has long been considered a core component of intergroup bias and a precursor to stereotyping and discrimination. However, the early perceptual nature of these intergroup biases is poorly understood. Here, we used a functional MRI adaptation paradigm to assess how face-selective brain regions respond to variation in physical similarity among racial ingroup (White) and outgroup (Black) faces. We conclude that differences emerge in the different tuning properties of early face-selective cortex for racial ingroup and outgroup faces and mirror behavioral differences in memory and perception of racial ingroup versus outgroup faces. These results suggest that outgroup deindividuation emerges at some of the earliest stages of perception.
Abstract
A hallmark of intergroup biases is the tendency to individuate members of one’s own group but process members of other groups categorically. While the consequences of these biases for stereotyping and discrimination are well-documented, their early perceptual underpinnings remain less understood. Here, we investigated the neural mechanisms of this effect by testing whether high-level visual cortex is differentially tuned in its sensitivity to variation in own-race versus other-race faces. Using a functional MRI adaptation paradigm, we measured White participants’ habituation to blocks of White and Black faces that parametrically varied in their groupwise similarity. Participants showed a greater tendency to individuate own-race faces in perception, showing both greater release from adaptation to unique identities and increased sensitivity in the adaptation response to physical difference among faces. These group differences emerge in the tuning of early face-selective cortex and mirror behavioral differences in the memory and perception of own- versus other-race faces. Our results suggest that biases for other-race faces emerge at some of the earliest stages of sensory perception.
Data Availability
Data deposition: The data presented in this paper are available through Open Science Framework, https://osf.io/zsdyf/.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Stanford Dean’s Awards (to J.L.E.) and by a Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging Innovation Grant to (to B.L.H. and N.P.C.). We wish to acknowledge Nalini Ambady for her contributions at the earliest stages of this research, although she did not live to witness its progression and completion.
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Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Data Availability
Data deposition: The data presented in this paper are available through Open Science Framework, https://osf.io/zsdyf/.
Submission history
Published online: July 1, 2019
Published in issue: July 16, 2019
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Stanford Dean’s Awards (to J.L.E.) and by a Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging Innovation Grant to (to B.L.H. and N.P.C.). We wish to acknowledge Nalini Ambady for her contributions at the earliest stages of this research, although she did not live to witness its progression and completion.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Cite this article
Neural adaptation to faces reveals racial outgroup homogeneity effects in early perception, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
116 (29) 14532-14537,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1822084116
(2019).
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