Cultural Differences in Face Recognition and Potential Underlying Mechanisms

The ability to recognize a face is crucial for the success of social interactions. Understanding the visual processes underlying this ability has been the focus of a long tradition of research. Recent advances in the field have revealed that individuals having different cultural backgrounds differ i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology 2021-04, Vol.12, p.627026-627026
Main Authors: Blais, Caroline, Linnell, Karina J, Caparos, Serge, Estéphan, Amanda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
cultural psychology
culture
face identification
face processing
Humanities and Social Sciences
Psychology
visual perception
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Summary:The ability to recognize a face is crucial for the success of social interactions. Understanding the visual processes underlying this ability has been the focus of a long tradition of research. Recent advances in the field have revealed that individuals having different cultural backgrounds differ in the type of visual information they use for face processing. However, the mechanisms that underpin these differences remain unknown. Here, we revisit recent findings highlighting group differences in face processing. Then, we integrate these results in a model of visual categorization developed in the field of psychophysics: the RAP framework. On the basis of this framework, we discuss potential mechanisms, whether face-specific or not, that may underlie cross-cultural differences in face perception.
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627026