By D. A. Barber.
The mind-set that people of different races "all look alike" seems to break down as we delve deeper into aligning ourselves with social networking groups. "If people find that racial biases interfere with their interactions with others, they might consider trying to finding a common group membership that they share," says Jay Van Bavel of New York University.
One social perception phenomena is that people remember those from their own race better, and have difficulty differentiating members of other races. This “own-race bias,” is often considered a result of people spending more time with members of their own race. But having trouble recognizing people from another race may actually have nothing to do with the other person's race.
Van Bavel, who’s new study was published in the December issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that one’s social group identity, shape attention and memory, over and above race categorization, and we can improve our memory of those from other races by identifying with the same group. It is a reverse strategy, emphasizing own-group bias.
In three experiments, this own-group bias was tested with people assigned to arbitrary groups – the "Moons" or the "Suns" - each group included both white and black members. All participants studied the faces of all members of both groups. After a short break, they participated in a brief memory test to see who they remembered from each group. Whether black or white, race had no effect on how well participants remembered members of their own group versus the other group. And they always remembered members of their own group more than the other group, especially if they strongly identified with their own group.
"The people in our studies seem to care more about their group membership than race – even when the groups are completely trivial," Van Bavel says. The one exception was the participants assigned the role of “spies.” These individuals were to infiltrate the other group members while remaining loyal to their own social group. The spies had a better memory for both the members of their own group and the other group.
"In other words, spies paid more attention to out-group members because it was part of their group identity," Van Bavel says. "If you give people the right motivation, they will pay attention to the out-group." This own-group bias suggests that social identity may allow us to improve our memory of members of another race by simply identifying everyone as part of the same group.
Researchers say such identification could improve everything from race relations to legal situations such as police lineups and eyewitness testimony: According to the researchers, approximately 36 percent of wrongful convictions are due to erroneous cross-race eyewitness identifications.
What do you think?
Article reprinted with permission of USAonRace.com
Featured Photo Credit: http://www.funnybirdsite.com
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