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Updated: Sep 21, 2025

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
Published on: June 3, 2013
Multi-cultural cities reduce disadvantages in recognizing naturalistic images of other-race faces: evidence from a
Xiaomei Zhou1, Catherine J Mondloch2, Sarina Hui-Lin Chien3
1Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, 350 Victoria St, Toronto, M5B 2K3, Canada. xm212009@gmail.com.
Abstract:
People often find it more difficult to recognize other- than own-race faces. This other-race effect is robust across numerous ethnic groups. Yet, it remains unclear how this effect changes in people who live in a multiracial environment, and in immigrants whose lifetime perceptual experience changes over time. In the present study, we developed a novel face recognition test that approximates face recognition in the real world. We tested five groups of White and East Asian adults (n = 120) living in racially homogeneous versus heterogeneous cities and East Asians who immigrated to a multiracial city between infancy and adulthood. Multiracial cities reduce the other-race effect. The magnitude of the other-race effect changes as a function of experience, mirroring the racial diversity in perceivers' living environment. Our study highlights the challenge of forming reliable face representations across naturalistic facial variability and suggests a facilitative role of multiracial environments in eliminating the other-race effect.
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