Cultural Differences in Face Recognition and Potential Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract

The ability to recognize a face is crucial for the success of social interactions. Understanding the visual processes underlying this ability has been the focus of a long tradition of research. Recent advances in the field have revealed that individuals having different cultural backgrounds differ in the type of visual information they use for face processing. However, the mechanisms that underpin these differences remain unknown. Here, we revisit recent findings highlighting group differences in face processing. Then, we integrate these results in a model of visual categorization developed in the field of psychophysics: the RAP framework. On the basis of this framework, we discuss potential mechanisms, whether face-specific or not, that may underlie cross-cultural differences in face perception.

Cultural differences in visual perceptual learning

“…To our knowledge, the present study provides the first compelling evidence of cross‐cultural differences in VPL. Culture mediates information processing (Blais et al, 2021; Caparos et al, 2020; Davidoff et al, 2008); and extending these findings to the VPL research domain, our results demonstrate that cultural differences in global processing can indeed affect learning. Despite the perceptual uncertainties induced by noise in the global patterns, the collectivistic group (Asian sample) showed greater improvements in response accuracy in the perceptual learning task compared to the individualistic group (European sample).…”

“…Our findings suggest that the analytic-holistic distinction between cultures influences VPL, particularly in tasks involving perceptual uncertainties. Furthermore, our results indicate that the behavioural differences observed between groups distinguished by their nationalities suggest that cultural influences may impact cognitive and behavioural processes (Blais et al, 2021;Caparos et al, 2020;Davidoff et al, 2008), although further research is needed to examine the specific cultural mechanisms underlying any differences in cognition and behaviour. While the individualism and collectivism dimensions are useful for cultural group analyses, it is also important to consider an individual level of analysis to examine the dynamic influence of cultural systems on an individual's cognition and behaviour (Taras et al, 2016).…”

“…Sustained exposure to cultural systems (as defined by frameworks such as individualism and collectivism or independent and interdependent self‐construals) could influence how people attend to or process informational variables from the environment (Blais et al, 2021; Caparos et al, 2020; Davidoff et al, 2008). For instance, individualism and independent self‐construals which are widespread in Western cultures, as well as collectivism and interdependence in Eastern cultures have been associated with analytic and holistic processing styles, respectively (Choi et al, 2007).…”

“…Notably, there is evidence to suggest a common global advantage during visual processing as stipulated by the global precedence hypothesis (Gerlach & Starrfelt, 2018; Liu & Luo, 2019). Despite this, it is estimated that the analytic and holistic processing differentiations between cultures could still impact how individuals perceive their environments and learn (Blais et al, 2021; Caparos et al, 2020; Davidoff et al, 2008; van der Kamp et al, 2013). The Glass (1969) pattern discrimination task could thus provide important evidence on the influence of culture on VPL as it can reveal if cultural differences in task performance manifest despite the global precedence effect (Gerlach & Starrfelt, 2018; Liu & Luo, 2019).…”

Consideration of Culture in Cognition: How We Can Enrich Methodology and Theory

“…In visual search tasks, Westerners exhibit search asymmetry whereby searching for a long line amongst shorter lines is faster than the opposite task, but this is not the case for recent immigrants from East Asia (Cramer et al, 2016). Face perception differs across cultures in terms of basic visual scan patterns, such that East Asians fixate more centrally, whereas Westerners fixate more on the eyes and mouth; East Asians using lower spatial frequencies more than Americans, as early as within the first 30 msec of face processing (as reviewed by Blais et al, 2021). Color change detection tends to be facilitated when the array is preserved rather than scrambled but cultures differ in the effect of expanding versus shrinking the array, with the former advantageous for performance in East Asians whereas the later disadvantages them, relative to Westerners (Boduroglu et al, 2009).…”