Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T00:34:15.795Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The social neuroscience of biases in in-and-out-group face processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2017

Sylvia Terbeck*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL48AA, United Kingdom. sylvia.terbeck@plymouth.ac.ukhttps://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/sylvia-terbeck

Abstract

The validity and reliability of stereotypes in social perception confirms traditional early social psychological research. Already in 1954 Gordon Allport stated that stereotypes might have a “kernel of truth.” Recent research in social neuroscience, however, contradicts Lee Jussims’ (2012) claim that the application of stereotypes increases accuracy in person perception. Person perception is inaccurate as it is insufficient when it involves only one factor (even if that factor was a reliable predictor).

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allport, G. W. (1954b) The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Cohen, C. E. (1981) Personal categories and social perception: Testing some boundaries of the processing effects of prior knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40:441–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contreras, J. M., Banaji, M. R. & Mitchell, J. P. (2013) Multivoxel patterns in fusiform face area differentiate faces by sex and race. PLoS ONE 8:16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cunningham, W. A., Johnson, M. K., Raye, C. L., Gatenby, J. C., Gore, J. C. & Banaji, M. R. (2004) Separable neural components in the processing of black and white faces. Psychological Science 15:806–13.Google Scholar
Jussim, L. (2012) Social perception and social reality: Why accuracy dominates bias and self-fulfilling prophecy. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jussim, L., Eccles, J. & Madon, S. (1996) Social perception, social stereotypes, and teacher expectations: Accuracy and the quest for the powerful self-fulfilling prophecy. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 28:281388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinzler, K. D. & Spelke, E. S. (2011) Do infants show social preferences for people differing in race? Cognition 119:19.Google Scholar
Macrae, C. N., Bodenhausen, G. V., Milne, A. B. & Jetten, J. (1994) Out of mind but back in sight: Stereotypes on the rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67:808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terbeck, S., Kahane, G., McTavish, S., McCutcheon, R., Hewstone, M., Savulescu, J., Chesterman, L. P., Cowen, P. J. & Norbury, R. (2015) β-Adrenoceptor blockade modulates fusiform gyrus activity to black versus white faces. Psychopharmacology 22:18.Google Scholar
Terbeck, S., Kahane, G., McTavish, S., Savulescu, J., Cowen, P. J. & Hewstone, M. (2012) Propranolol reduces implicit negative racial bias. Psychopharmacology 222:419–24.Google Scholar
Wheeler, M. E. & Fiske, S. T. (2005) Controlling racial prejudice social-cognitive goals affect amygdala and stereotype activation. Psychological Science 16:5663.Google Scholar