Why do 'they all look alike'?
The title says it all this article refers to how people among different races look the same to us. the article suggest that we are more cognitively adept at recognizing different features among our own race than of other races. Further along it says we generalize by not coding, we have the ability but we choose at not using it. We place more emphasis on the race than the individual an example the article gives is "When a white person looks at another white person's nose, they're likely to think to themselves, 'That's John's nose.' When they look at a black person's nose, they're likely to think, 'That's a black nose."
He hypothesize that race is a specific visual feature that people use in perceiving faces. Though this is true across all race lines it is more common in white people to be unable to recognize the variations in black faces than the other way around. Asians were also able to perceive differentiation among white faces than black faces. This article suggest that we do have the mental capability to recognize certain faces but our own perception of a universal "race face" blocks this ability.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec00/lookalike.html
8 comments:
That's really sad. I read once that it's due to the more primitive part of the brain (the amygdala) jumping in and classifying others as different before the forebrain (our conscious selves) can stop it. But if we get to know lots of people who are different from ourselves, we gradually overcome this. :)
Interesting. I guess some people do distinguish race with facial features. I'm not sure how I feel about it though.
If this is, like Michael says, because of our amygdala, it could be the cause of a lot of the racial tensions in society today. It's sad to think that we all think likethis. But it does give hope; we all have the capacity to not generalize.
Very interesting. Some people do seem to recognize race through facial features, but like Zeenat, I'm not completely sure how I feel about it.
Yea i know alot of people who can do this too.
stereotyping according to race is wrong but it happens. interesting blog!
love is colorblind. thats all that matters. but good point and nice blog
haha well that is a very interesting way to look at it. I don't know if I agree with that article's stance though.
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