Does a Lack of Perceptual Expertise Prevent Participants From Forming Reliable First Impressions of “Other-Race” Faces?

Abstract

Many studies investigating first impressions from faces employ stimulus sets that comprise only White faces. It is argued that participants lack the necessary perceptual expertise to provide reliable trait evaluations when viewing faces from ethnicities that differ from their own. In combination with a reliance on White and WEIRD participants, this concern has contributed to the widespread use of White face stimuli in this literature. The present study sought to determine whether concerns about the use of so-called other-race faces are justified by assessing the test–retest reliability of trait judgments made about sameand other-race faces. In two experiments conducted on 400 British participants, we find that White British participants made reliable trait judgments about Black faces, and Black British participants made reliable trait judgments about White faces. It is important that future work be conducted to determine how widely these results generalize. Considering our findings, however, we suggest (a) that the default assumption in future first impressions research should be that participants—particularly those recruited from diverse communities—are able to form reliable first impressions of other-race faces and (b) that faces of color be included in stimulus sets whenever possible.