Do They All Look Alike?: A Bibliography of Research on the Cross-Racial Phenomenon

A wealth of research over the last 30 years has shown that identifications by witnesses belonging to a different race than the individual being observed are less reliable than same-race identifications. The phenomenon has been termed the "own-race bias," as well as the "cross-racial effect." It is not a function of prejudice, and does not depend on a belief by the witness that members of a particular race "all look alike" -- or even look more or less similar than members of one's own race. Rather, it is a perceptual phenomenon that appears to apply to members of all races, which social scientists have known for decades.

Below is a bibliography of research on the topic, dating all the way back to 1978 when John Brigham and P. Barkowitz conducted a study that revealed that members of different races were less accurate when attempting to identify individuals of other races.

Bibliography of research:

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Barkowitz, P. a. B., J. C. (1982). Recognition of faces: Own-race bias, incentive, and time delay. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 12, 255-268.

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Bothwell, R. K., Brigham, J.C., & Malpass, R.S. (1989). Cross-racial identifications. Personality and Psychology Bulletin, 15, 19-25.

Brigham, J. C. (1980). Perspectives on the impact composition, race, and witness confidence on accuracy. Law & Human Behavior, 4(4), 315-321.

Brigham, J. C. (1978). The effect of race, sex, experience and attitude on the ability to recognize faces. Do "they all look alike?". Journal of Applied Social Psychology., 8, 306-318.

Brigham, J. C., Bennett, L. B., Meissner, C. A., & Mitchell, T. L. (in press). The influence of race on eyewitness memory. In R. C. L. Lindsay, D. F. Ross, J. D. Read, & M. P. Toglia (Eds.), Handbook of eyewitness psychology. Volume II: Memory for people (pp. 257-281). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Brigham, J. C. (in press). The role of race and racial prejudice in recognizing other people. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 2005 (Vol 53). New York: Springer.

Brigham, J. C. (1978). Do "They all look alike?" The effects of race, sex, experience, and attitude on the ability to recognize faces. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 8, 306-318.

Brigham, J. C. (1979). Cross-racial recognition and age: When you're over 60, do they still "all look alike?". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 5, 218-222.

Brigham, J. C., & Malpass, R.S. (1985). The role of experience and contact in the recognition of faces of own- and other-races persons. Journal of Social Issues, 41, 139-155.

Brigham, J. C., & Meissner, C. A. (2000, March, ). Representation and memory for same and other-race faces. Paper presented at the American Psychology-Law Society, New Orleans, LA.

Brigham, J. C., & Ready, D. L. (1985). Own-race bias in lineup construction. Law & Human Behavior, 9, 415-424.

Brigham, J. C., Maass, A., Snyder, L. D., & Spaulding, K. (1982). The accuracy of eyewitness identifications in a field setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology., 42, 673-681.

Bruce, A. J., Beard, K. W., & Tedford, S. (1997). African Americans' and Caucasian American's recognition and likeability response to African American and Caucasian American faces. Journal of General Psychology, 124, 143-156.

Bruyer, R., & Dussart, T. (1985). Lateral differences in the race effect in face recognition. International Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 1-12.

Bruyer, S. (1987). Race categorization and face recognition stages in the processing of laterally displayed faces. Cortex, 23, 415-429.

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Carroo, A. W. (1987). Recognition of faces as a function of race, attitudes and reported cross-racial friendships. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 64, 319-325.

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Chance, J. E. G., A.G. (1987). Retention interval and face recognition: Response latency measures. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 25, 415-418.

Chance, J. E., & Goldstein, A. G. (1981). Depth of processing in response to own- and other-race faces. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 7(3), 475-480.

Chance, J. E., & Goldstein, A. G. (1996). The other-race effect and eyewitness identification. In S. L. Sporer, R.S. Malpass & G. Koehnken (Ed.), Psychological issues in eyewitness identification. (pp. 153-176). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chance, J. E., Goldstein, A, G., & Anderson, B. (1986). Recognition memory for infant faces: An analog of the other-race effect. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 24(4), 257-260.

Chance, J. E., Turner, A. L., & Goldstein, A. L. (1982). Development of differential recognition for own- and other-race faces. Journal of Psychology, 112, 29-37.

Chance, J., Goldstein, A. G., and McBride, I. L. (1975). Differential experience and recognition memory for faces. Journal of Social Psychology., 97, 243-253.

Chiroro, X. V., T. (1995). An investigation of the contact hypothesis of the own-race bias in face recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48A, 879-894.

Cross, J. F., & Cross, J. (1971). Age, sex, race, and the perception of facial beauty. Developmental Psychology, 5, 433-439.

Cross, J. F., Cross, J. and Daly, J. (1971). Sex, race, age, and beauty as factors in recognition of faces. Perception and Psychophysics, 10, 393-396.

Deregowski, E., & Shepherd. (1973). A cross-cultural study of recognition of pictures of faces and cups. International Journal of Psychology, 8(1), 269-273.

Devine, P. G., & Malpass, R. S. (1985). Orienting strategies in differential face recognition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11(1), 33-40.

Doyle, James M. (2001). Discounting the error Costs: Cross-Racial False Alarms in the Culture of Contemporary Criminal Justice. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7, 253-262.

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Elliott, H. D., Deregowski (Wills?), J. B., and Goldstein, A. G. (1973). The effects of discrimination training on the recognition of white and oriental faces. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society., 2.

Ellis, H. D. a. D., J. B. (1981). With-in race and between-race recognition of transformed and untransformed faces. American Journal of Psychology, 94, 27-35.

Ellis, H. D., Davies, G. M., & McMurran, M. M. (1979). Recall of White and Black Faces by White and Black witnesses using the Photofit system. Human Factors, 21, 55-59.

Ellis, H. D., Deregowski, J. B., and Shepherd, J. W. (1975). Description of white and black faces by white and black subjects. International Journal of Psychology., 10, 119-123.

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Galper, G. E. (1973). "Functional race membership" and recognition of faces. Perceptual and Motor Skills., 37, 455-462.

Goldstein, A. G. (1979). Facial feature variation: Anthropometric data II. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 13(3), 191-193.

Goldstein, A. G. (1979). Race-related variation of facial features: Anthropometric data I. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 13(3), 187-190.

Goldstein, A. G. a. C., J. (1976). Measuring psychological similarity of faces. Bulliten of the Psychonomic Society., 7, 185-193.

Goldstein, A. G. a. C., J. (1978). Judging face similarity in own and other races. Journal of Psychology, 98, 185-193.

Goldstein, A. G., & Chance, J. E. (1979). Do foreign faces really look alike? Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 13, 111-113.

Goldstein, A. G., & Chance, J. E. (1980). Memory for faces and schema theory. Journal of Psychology, 105, 47-59.

Goldstein, A. G., & Chance, J. E. (1985). Effects of training on Japanese faces recognition: Reduction of the other-race effect. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 23, 211-214.

Goldstein, A. G., Knight, P., Bailis, K., & Conover, J. (1981). Recognition memory for accented and unaccented voices. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 17(5), 217-220.

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Hintzman, D. L. (1988). Judgements of frequency and recognition in a multiple-trace memory model. Psychological Review, 95, 528-551.

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Jalbert, N. L., & Getting, J. (1992). Racial and gender issues in facial recognition. In D. B. F. Losel, & T. Bliesener (Ed.), Psychology and Law: International perspectives. (pp. 309-316). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.

Kassin, S. M., Ellsworth, P. C., & Smith, V. L. (1989). The "general acceptance" of psychological research on eyewitness testimony: A survey of the experts. American Psychologist, 44, 1089-1098.

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Levin, Daniel T., Beale, James M. (2000). Categorical perception occurs in newly learned faces, other-race faces, and inverted faces. Perception & Psychophysics, 62(2), 386-401.

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