Through the eyes of the own-race bias : eye-tracking and pupillometry during perception of own-race and other-race faces

Abstract

Many studies have established that people are generally better at remembering faces of their own race than faces of another different race, and this finding has become known as the Own-Race Bias (ORB) effect. In this study, we used eye-tracking and pupillometry to examine whether Caucasian participants viewed differently Caucasian and Asian face stimuli. First of all, we replicated the ORB, observing better recognition performance for own-race faces than other-race faces. Moreover, we observed a distinct race effect of the stimuli on eye-movements and pupillary response. Own-race face processing was characterized by more active scanning, with a larger number of shorter fixations, and more saccades. It also required less cognitive effort, as indicated by pupillary change. These findings can be interpreted in the light of existing accounts of ORB, that is, there is a cognitive advantage for own-race faces during perceptual processing. During a subsequent recognition test, we further observed an effect of memory for previously-viewed stimuli on both eye movements and pupillary changes. Participants scanned the stimuli more actively during the retrieval of novel stimuli, although less cognitive effort was required. However, we did not observe an interaction effect between the race of the stimuli and prior exposure, suggesting that the effect of prior exposure to the stimuli on eye data is not modulated by the race of the stimuli.