Investigating the role of motivation in cross-race facial recognition using a social exclusion paradigm

Derbyshire, Daniel

Investigating the role of motivation in cross-race facial recognition using a social exclusion paradigm

Master Thesis

2022

Abstract

The cross-race effect (CRE) refers to the finding that participants in face recognition tasks show better memory for same-race faces than cross-race faces. The social cognitive perspective suggests that motivation to encode and remember different faces can affect the CRE. Social exclusion presents one way to explore the role of motivation through its influence on the processing social information. The primary aim of the present research was to examine the influence of social exclusion on the CRE. Social exclusion was simulated by using Cyberball, a game where participants are excluded by virtual players. The Cyberball games also formed the encoding phase of a face recognition task, where different race faces were used as the avatars of the virtual players. The final sample included 754 black, coloured and white participants assigned to one of five conditions where they were included or excluded by same-race or cross-race members. The analyses showed that black participants did not show any significant CRE, white participants showed a CRE for both black and coloured targets and coloured participants showed a CRE for black targets only. The effects of exclusion were not consistent and, generally, predictions about the role of motivation were not supported. These results point to a need to explore inconsistencies in producing the CRE, such as why participants demonstrate a CRE for certain cross-race groups but not others. Considering the lack of support for a motivational account, the present research suggest that a combination of perceptual, social and contextual factors should be considered in future research on the CRE.

Keywords

Psychology

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