Reply #62: Because it fits what the poster wants to believe. [View All]

[kiva]

Studies show that our recognition is based on a variety of factors:

Is it racist? No, says this one:

ABSTRACT

Legal scholars and social scientists have long assumed that there is a racial bias in facial recognition and eyewitness identifications, with persons being much more accurate in identifying persons of their own race, but corroborative research evidence is scanty. In the present study, black and white college students attempted to identify which of a series of facial photos they had seen earlier. As predicted, a strong race of subject by race of picture interaction was found; both black and white subjects were significantly more accurate in identifying pictures of their own race than pictures of the other race. However, contrary to assumptions made by many legal and criminal justice personnel, neither racial attitude nor reported amount of quality of interracial experience were related to ability to recognize pictures. Implications for eyewitness identifications of these and related findings are discussed.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119613268/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Could gender be a factor?

People are biased in recognising faces of their own sex, a new study has found.

Dan Wright and his colleague at Sussex University's department of psychology found that women were much better at remembering female rather than male faces. And, likewise, men were better at identifying male rather than female faces.

"People are better at recognising faces of their own gender," Dr Wright told The THES. "This complements other research that has shown that people are better at identifying faces of their own race and age."

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=178958§ioncode=26

Is age a factor?

A recent study by Virginia Harrison and Graham J. Hole was able to address some of these questions. They showed faces of boys (age 8-11) and adult men to 66 university students. Half of these students were in a teacher-training program and had been working with kids this age for an average of more than a year. The other half had very limited contact with children.

Everyone saw 32 pictures of faces, 16 from each age group (either smiling or neutral), flashed for three seconds at a time. They were told to memorize the faces for a test. They were then distracted for three minutes, and tested on a new set of photos: 32 different people, plus 32 of the original group, but in a different pose (smiling or neutral). For each photo, the students had to say, as quickly and accurately as possible, whether they had seen that face before. Here are the results:


There was no difference in recognition of their own age group, but the teacher trainees were significantly better at recognizing kids' faces than the non-teachers. There were similar results for reaction time.

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/04/some_insight_into_why_its_hard.php

But it's simpler to apply one theory - racism - than to consider other factors, hence the poster's attitude.