RACE BIAS IN ADOLESCENT FACE RECOGNITION: THE ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP DIVERSITY, ETHNIC-RACIAL IDENTITY, ETHNIC-RACIAL SOCIALIZATION, AND PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION
Open Access
- Author:
- Dai, Junqiang
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 20, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Rick Gilmore, Major Field Member
Dawn Witherspoon, Major Field Member
Mark Shriver, Outside Unit & Field Member
Paul Quiin, Special Member
Suzy Scherf, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Kristin Buss (she/her), Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- own-race bias
adolescents
face processing
ethnic-racial identity
ethnic-racial socialization
development - Abstract:
- Background: Driven by the motivation to fulfill the developmental tasks and influenced by the pubertal hormones, many aspects of face processing begin to change, and new social/affective components of face processing begin to emerge during adolescence, which is ultimately reflected in the biases of face processing (i.e., superior recognition). While individuals begin to exhibit biases in peer faces and complex expression during adolescence, it is largely unknown whether adolescents exhibit a bias in own-race face than other-race faces because most of the current literature has primarily focused on such psychological phenomenon in adults, particularly White adults. In this study, I am examining whether adolescents exhibit an own-race bias (ORB) in their face recognition behaviors. Further, I am testing the conceptual framework in which we argue that the variation in the extent to which one’s ethnicity and race is central to one’s self-identity influences the way race information in faces is perceived and processed via friendship diversity with peers. Other factors that are highly associated with one’s ethnic-racial identity (ERI) are also empirically tested to explain the individual variation of race biases in face processing of adolescents. Method: 10-17-year-old adolescents from White, Black, East Asian, and Biracial groups were recruited and instructed to finish a computerized face recognition task in which White, Black, and East Asian peer and parent-aged faces were presented. Adolescents finished surveys measuring their ERI and ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) received from parents and peers, friendship diversity with peers, and ethnic-racial compositions in their neighborhoods and schools. Results: Consistent with our hypothesis, adolescents did not exhibit a bias in own-race face relative to other-race face in general. However, there is a group difference in the magnitude and direction of race biases in adolescents’ face recognition between these four groups. These results suggested that there is a huge individual difference in the manifestation of race biases in adolescents’ face processing behaviors. Such individual differences in race biases in face processing of adolescents were negatively associated with adolescents’ friendship diversity with peers, which is consistent with the hypothesis. Replicated our previous findings, adolescents exhibited a peer bias in face recognition; importantly, for the first time, I found that there is an interaction between peer bias and own-race bias in adolescents’ face recognition, such that adolescents recognized own-race peer faces and other-race peer faces comparably whereas exhibited a bias in own-race parent-aged faces. Main findings from the structural equation modeling suggest that: (1). Adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is negatively associated with the individual difference in the ORB via friendship diversity; (2). Neither ethnic-racial compositions in neighborhood nor school predicted individual difference in ORB; (3). Culture pride received from parents is negatively associated with the individual difference in the ORB via friendship diversity; egalitarianism received from parents is positively associated with individual difference in the ORB but is negatively associated with such individual difference in the ORB via friendship diversity; (4). Culture pride received from peers is positively associated with individual difference in the ORB but is negatively associated with the individual difference in the ORB via friendship diversity; (5). Promotion of mistrust received from peers negatively modulate the individual difference in the ORB via perceived discrimination from adults in neighborhood. Discussion: Findings suggest that the absence of ORB at group level might be due to the enormous individual variation in the way race of race is perceived and processed in adolescents. The findings here suggest that peer relationship, instead of perceptual experience as suggested by the Contact Hypothesis, plays a critical role in modulating such individual variation among adolescents. Further, such variation in the visuoperceptual system underlying race biases in face processing can develop throughout multiple distinct mechanisms in which adolescents’ ERI, ERS received from parents and peers, discrimination experience, and friendship diversity with peers independently and/or synergistically play critical roles. This is the first study that specifically investigates the ORB in adolescent population and considers a set of critical developmental factors beyond perceptual experience within developmental perspectives, providing a parsimonious theoretical account about the formation and development of ORB and a new perspective on future intervention. This study also has implications for understanding adolescent social behaviors and interracial interactions during adolescence.