The Race Consistency of Face and Context Modulates the Race Searching Advantage

Levin (1996; 2000) has found that, in race searching task, compared to own race, other races were preferentially detected. The present study investigated whether this other-race advantage will also be observed when faces were presented in certain contexts. Twenty subjects were asked to search a Chinese face among Caucasian faces in a block, and to search a Caucasian face among Chinese faces in the other block. These faces were presented in a neutral grey background, a Chinese background (e.g., the Great Wall), or a Caucasian background (e.g., the White House) separately in three sub-blocks. The set size varied from 2, 4, to 6. Results showed the other-race advantage in the neutral grey background, and the other-race advantage when the races of target and context were inconsistent. However, an own-race advantage was observed when the races of target and context were consistent.