Contributions of Ethnicity and Attention to the Ensemble Emotional Perception in a Mixed Group

Abstract The other-race effect (ORE) is the phenomenon by which own-race faces are better recognized than other-race faces, which is one of the best-replicated phenomena in facial recognition. However, it is still unknown whether this effect also exists in the emotional perception of group faces. In this study, we tried to clarify whether the ORE exists in a mixed group of Asian and Caucasian faces and whether this possible ORE is driven by attention modulation. Results suggested that the ORE did exist in the emotional process of a mixed group. Moreover, attention could modulate this emotional significance by increasing the weight of the different face (the different face represents the face whose ethnicity is different from the other 3), especially when the different face is of the participants’ own ethnicity (Asian). However, Asian participants tended to discard the single Caucasian face but depended on the 3 Asian faces to form the ensemble representation of them regardless of attention to the Caucasian face. Therefore, for Asian participants, although there is an ORE for the emotional ensemble representation of faces from different ethnicities, this effect is not entirely driven by attentional modulation. Together with the error distribution analysis, results suggested that ORE is more likely to be affected by perceptual precision. These findings may help us better understand the emotional perception of faces from different ethnicities.