DOI:10.6129/CJP.201906_61(2).0004
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2019, Vol.61, No.2, 151-172

Asian or Caucasian? Exploring the Development of Race Categorization in Taiwanese School-Aged Children Using a Morphing Face Paradigm

Chun-Man Chen（Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University）；Yu-Shao Kuo（Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University）；Sarina Hui-Lin Chien（Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University；Graduate Institute of Neural & Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University）

Abstract

The broadly defined other-race effect (ORE) refers to differential processing for own- and other-race faces, such as own-race face recognition advantage and categorization bias for racially ambiguous faces. The present study adopted bi-racial (East Asian and Caucasian) morph face images as stimuli, aiming to explore the development of race categorization in Taiwanese school-age children and adults. In Experiment 1, we tested 33 adults (17 females) on their race categorization of Asian/White morphed faces. In Experiment 2, we tested 65 school-age children (34 girls), divided into three age groups, 7-8 year-olds (N = 21), 9-10 year-olds (N = 22), and 11-12 year-olds (N = 22), with the same task. The morphed face stimuli contained 11 levels (from A100/C0 (100% Asian) to A0/C100 (100% White) in 10% increment); both children and adults were asked to categorize each of the morphed faces as either Asian or Caucasian. The results showed that, as the Asian face component increased, the participants were more likely to categorize the morphed face as Asian. Importantly, for the 50% Asian/White racially ambiguous faces: 7-8 year-olds categorized the faces as Asian whereas 9-10 year-olds, 11-12 year-olds, and adults categorized the face as White. Moreover, the reaction times for the morphed faces of nearly equal Asian and White components (e.g., A50/C50 or A60/C40) were the longest among all, indicating that those faces were rather difficult to categorize. Lastly, we adopted curve fitting (using a 4-parameter sigmoidal function) to estimate individuals’ threshold of the Asian component for categorizing as “Asian.” The adults’ group mean threshold was 56.01%; the group mean thresholds of 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 year-olds were 49.52%, 54.27%, and 53.13%, respectively, showing a tendency of increasing threshold from age 7 to 12. In summary, our findings provide a cross-cultural comparison on the development of race categorization in school-age children.

Keywords: face perception, other-race effect (ORE), race categorization, school-age children