Now You See Me, Now You Don't

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this study is to determine whether people more proficiently recognize faces of their own race or those of others. Methods/Materials 40 subjects, 8 different pictures of people per race, index cards, stopwatch. Subjects were tested in two sessions with a period of at least two days in between. Subjects were asked to indentify their own race. Four pictures were given to them to look at for 1 minute. Then I would mix the original four with four different pictures and ask the subjects to identify the original four. Once recorded the result, subjects would be asked to identify the original four again betweem the next 2-3 days and record the results. Results The result of both the first and second sessions was recorded. The scores for the sessions showed that 42.5% of subjects only recognized their own race, 35% recognized both, 17.5% only recognized another, and 5% didn't recognize either. This showed that people were most proficient in recognizing only their own race faces. Conclusions/Discussion The results supported my hypothesis that people would more easily distinguish the faces of those of their own race than those of others. The subjects mentioned that if I were to do tests over the course of different days, it would alter my data tremenously. Therefore I changed my procedure to have two sessions over the course of multiple days. At first my data supoorted that people both could recognize both their own race and those of others, but after changing my procedure it was clear that my data supported my hypothesis. Knowing that people do more easily recognize the faces of their own races better than those of others, we can now expose our young to more races. Doing so, they can be accustomed to seeing other facial features that come with different races.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2018 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0420

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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