Own- and other-race face identity recognition in children: the effects of pose and feature composition

The other-race effect of pupil contagion in infancy

Pupil contagion refers to the observer's pupil-diameter changes in response to changes in the pupil diameter of others. Recent studies on the other-race effect on pupil contagion have mainly focused on using eye region images as stimuli, revealing the effect in adults but not in infants. To address this research gap, the current study used whole-face images as stimuli to assess the pupil-diameter response of 5-6-month-old and 7-8-month-old infants to changes in the pupil-diameter of both upright and inverted unfamiliar-race faces. The study initially hypothesized that there would be no pupil contagion in either upright or inverted unfamiliar-race faces, based on our previous finding of pupil contagion occurring only in familiar-race faces among 5-6-month-old infants. Notably, the current results indicated that 5-6-month-old infants exhibited pupil contagion in both upright and inverted unfamiliar-race faces, while 7-8-month-old infants showed this effect only in upright unfamiliar-race faces. These results demonstrate that the face inversion effect of pupil contagion does not occur in 5-6-month-old infants, thereby suggesting the presence of the other-race effect in pupil contagion among this age group. Overall, this study provides the first evidence of the other-race effect on infants' pupil contagion using face stimuli.

Event-related potential correlates of implicit processing of own- and other-race faces in children

Human adults typically experience difficulties in recognizing and discriminating individual faces belonging to racial groups other than their own. The origin of this "other-race" effect is set in infancy, but the understanding of its developmental course is fragmented. We aimed to access the mechanisms of the other-race effect in childhood by unraveling the neural time course of own- and other-race face processing during a masked priming paradigm. White 6- and 7-year-old children (N = 19) categorized fully visible Asian (other-race) or White (own-race) target faces according to gender. Target faces were preceded by masked same-identity or different-identity prime faces, matching the target for race and gender. We showed an early priming effect on the N100 component, with larger amplitude to different-face pairs than to same-face pairs, and a later race effect on the N200 component, with larger amplitude to own-race face pairs than to other-race face pairs. Critically, race did not interact with priming at any processing stage (P100, N100, P200, N200, or P300). Our results suggest that race could have a temporally limited impact on face processing and that the implicit and unconscious identity processing of own- and other-race faces could be similar in 6- and 7-year-olds, depicting an immature other-race effect during childhood.

6- to 10-year-old children do not show race-based orienting biases to faces during an online attention capture task

Research has established that frequency of exposure to own- and other-race faces shapes the development of face processing biases characterized by enhanced attention to and recognition of more familiar own-race faces, that is, the other-race effect (ORE). The ORE is first evident during infancy based on differences in looking to own- versus other-race faces and is later assessed based on recognition memory task performance during childhood and adulthood. Using these measures, researchers have found that race-based face processing biases initially develop during infancy but remain sensitive to experiences with own- and other-race faces through childhood. In contrast, limited work suggests that infants' attention orienting may be less affected by frequency of exposure to own- and other-race faces. However, the plasticity of race-based face processing biases during childhood suggests that biased orienting to own-race faces may develop at later ages following continued exposure to these faces. We addressed this question by examining 6- to 10-year-old children's attention capture by own- and other-race faces during an online task. Children searched for a target among multiple distractors. During some trials, either an own- or other-race face appeared as one of the distractors. Children showed similar target detection performance (omission errors, accuracy, and response times) regardless of whether an own- or other-race face appeared as a distractor. These results differ from research demonstrating race-based biases in attention holding and recognition memory but converge with previous infant research suggesting that attention orienting might not be as strongly affected by frequency of exposure to race-based information during development.

Neural timing of the other-race effect across the lifespan: A review

Face race influences the way we process faces, so that faces of a different ethnic group are processed for identity less efficiently than faces of one's ethnic group - a phenomenon known as the Other-Race Effect (ORE). Although widely replicated, the ORE is still poorly characterized in terms of its development and the underlying mechanisms. In the last two decades, the Event-Related Potential (ERP) technique has brought insight into the mechanisms underlying the ORE and has demonstrated potential to clarify its development. Here, we review the ERP evidence for a differential neural processing of own-race and other-race faces throughout the lifespan. In infants, race-related processing differences emerged at the N290 and P400 (structural encoding) stages. In children, race affected the P100 (early processing, attention) perceptual stage and was implicitly encoded at the N400 (semantic processing) stage. In adults, processing difficulties for other-race faces emerged at the N170 (structural encoding), P200 (configuration processing) and N250 (accessing individual representations) perceptual stages. Early in processing, race was implicitly encoded from other-race faces (N100, P200 attentional biases) and in-depth processing preferentially applied to own-race faces (N200 attentional bias). Encoding appeared less efficient (Dm effects) and retrieval less recollection-based (old/new effects) for other-race faces. Evidence admits the contribution of perceptual, attentional, and motivational processes to the development and functioning of the ORE, offering no conclusive support for perceptual or socio-cognitive accounts. Cross-racial and non-cross-racial studies provided convergent evidence. Future research would need to include less represented ethnic populations and the developmental population.

Do they 'look' different(ly)? Dynamic face recognition in Malaysians: Chinese, Malays and Indians compared

Previous cross-cultural eye-tracking studies examining face recognition discovered differences in the eye movement strategies that observers employ when perceiving faces. However, it is unclear (1) the degree to which this effect is fundamentally related to culture and (2) to what extent facial physiognomy can account for the differences in looking strategies when scanning own- and other-race faces. In the current study, Malay, Chinese and Indian young adults who live in the same multiracial country performed a modified yes/no recognition task. Participants' recognition accuracy and eye movements were recorded while viewing muted face videos of own- and other-race individuals. Behavioural results revealed a clear own-race advantage in recognition memory, and eye-tracking results showed that the three ethnic race groups adopted dissimilar fixation patterns when perceiving faces. Chinese participants preferentially attended more to the eyes than Indian participants did, while Indian participants made more and longer fixations on the nose than Malay participants did. In addition, we detected statistically significant, though subtle, differences in fixation patterns between the faces of the three races. These findings suggest that the racial differences in face-scanning patterns may be attributed both to culture and to variations in facial physiognomy between races.

Harsh Parenting Predicts Novel HPA Receptor Gene Methylation and NR3C1 Methylation Predicts Cortisol Daily Slope in Middle Childhood

Adverse experiences in childhood are associated with altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and negative health outcomes throughout life. It is now commonly accepted that abuse and neglect can alter epigenetic regulation of HPA genes. Accumulated evidence suggests harsh parenting practices such as spanking are also strong predictors of negative health outcomes. We predicted harsh parenting at 2.5 years old would predict HPA gene DNA methylation similarly to abuse and neglect, and cortisol output at 8.5 years old. Saliva samples were collected three times a day across 3 days to estimate cortisol diurnal slopes. Methylation was quantified using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC array BeadChip (850 K) with DNA collected from buccal cells. We used principal components analysis to compute a summary statistic for CpG sites across candidate genes. The first and second components were used as outcome variables in mixed linear regression analyses with harsh parenting as a predictor variable. We found harsh parenting significantly predicted methylation of several HPA axis genes, including novel gene associations with AVPRB1, CRHR1, CRHR2, and MC2R (FDR corrected p < 0.05). Further, we found NR3C1 methylation predicted a steeper diurnal cortisol slope. Our results extend the current literature by demonstrating harsh parenting may influence DNA methylation similarly to more extreme early life experiences such as abuse and neglect. Further, we show NR3C1 methylation is associated with diurnal HPA function. Elucidating the molecular consequences of harsh parenting on health can inform best parenting practices and provide potential treatment targets for common complex disorders.

The development of race effects in face processing from childhood through adulthood: Neural and behavioral evidence

Most adults are better at recognizing recently encountered faces of their own race, relative to faces of other races. In adults, this race effect in face recognition is associated with differential neural representations of own- and other-race faces in the fusiform face area (FFA), a high-level visual region involved in face recognition. Previous research has linked these differential face representations in adults to viewers' implicit racial associations. However, despite the fact that the FFA undergoes a gradual development which continues well into adulthood, little is known about the developmental time-course of the race effect in FFA responses. Also unclear is how this race effect might relate to the development of face recognition or implicit associations with own- or other-races during childhood and adolescence. To examine the developmental trajectory of these race effects, in a cross-sectional study of European American (EA) children (ages 7-11), adolescents (ages 12-16) and adults (ages 18-35), we evaluated responses to adult African American (AA) and EA face stimuli, using functional magnetic resonance imaging and separate behavioral measures outside the scanner. We found that FFA responses to AA and EA faces differentiated during development from childhood into adulthood; meanwhile, the magnitudes of race effects increased in behavioral measures of face-recognition and implicit racial associations. These three race effects were positively correlated, even after controlling for age. These findings suggest that social and perceptual experiences shape a protracted development of the race effect in face processing that continues well into adulthood.

Accuracy comparison across face recognition algorithms: Where are we on measuring race bias?

Previous generations of face recognition algorithms differ in accuracy for images of different races (race bias). Here, we present the possible underlying factors (data-driven and scenario modeling) and methodological considerations for assessing race bias in algorithms. We discuss data-driven factors (e.g., image quality, image population statistics, and algorithm architecture), and scenario modeling factors that consider the role of the "user" of the algorithm (e.g., threshold decisions and demographic constraints). To illustrate how these issues apply, we present data from four face recognition algorithms (a previous-generation algorithm and three deep convolutional neural networks, DCNNs) for East Asian and Caucasian faces. First, dataset difficulty affected both overall recognition accuracy and race bias, such that race bias increased with item difficulty. Second, for all four algorithms, the degree of bias varied depending on the identification decision threshold. To achieve equal false accept rates (FARs), East Asian faces required higher identification thresholds than Caucasian faces, for all algorithms. Third, demographic constraints on the formulation of the distributions used in the test, impacted estimates of algorithm accuracy. We conclude that race bias needs to be measured for individual applications and we provide a checklist for measuring this bias in face recognition algorithms.

A developmental investigation of the other-race categorization advantage in a multiracial population: Contrasting social categorization and perceptual expertise accounts

Most prior studies of the other-race categorization advantage have been conducted in predominantly monoracial societies. This limitation has left open the question of whether tendencies to more rapidly and accurately categorize other-race faces reflect social categorization (own-race vs. other-race) or perceptual expertise (frequent exposure vs. infrequent exposure). To address this question, we tested Malay and Malaysian Chinese children (9- and 10-year-olds) and adults on (a) own-race faces (i.e., Malay faces for Malay participants and Chinese faces for Malaysian Chinese participants), (b) high-frequency other-race faces (i.e., Chinese faces for Malay participants and Malay faces for Malaysian Chinese participants), and (c) low-frequency other-race faces (i.e., Caucasian faces). Whereas the other-race categorization advantage was in evidence in the accuracy data of Malay adults, other aspects of performance were supportive of either the social categorization or perceptual expertise accounts and were dependent on the race (Malay vs. Chinese) or age (child vs. adult) of the participants. Of particular significance is the finding that Malaysian Chinese children and adults categorized own-race Chinese faces more rapidly than high-frequency other-race Malay faces. Thus, in accord with a perceptual expertise account, the other-race categorization advantage seems to be more an advantage for racial categories of lesser experience regardless of whether these face categories are own-race or other-race.

The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society

The own-race bias (ORB) is a reliable phenomenon across cultural and racial groups where unfamiliar faces from other races are usually remembered more poorly than own-race faces (Meissner and Brigham, 2001). By adopting a yes-no recognition paradigm, we found that ORB was pronounced across race groups (Malaysian-Malay, Malaysian-Chinese, Malaysian-Indian, and Western-Caucasian) when faces were presented with only internal features (Experiment 1), implying that growing up in a profoundly multiracial society does not necessarily eliminate ORB. Using a procedure identical to Experiment 1, we observed a significantly greater increment in recognition performance for other-race faces than for own-race faces when the external features (e.g. facial contour and hairline) were presented along with the internal features (Experiment 2)-this abolished ORB. Contrary to assumptions based on the contact hypothesis, participants' self-reported amount of interracial contact on a social contact questionnaire did not significantly predict the magnitude of ORB. Overall, our findings suggest that the level of exposure to other-race faces accounts for only a small part of ORB. In addition, the present results also support the notion that different neural mechanisms may be involved in processing own- and other-race faces, with internal features of own-race faces being processed more effectively, whereas external features dominate representations of other-race faces.

Does culture shape face perception in autism? Cross-cultural evidence of the own-race advantage from the UK and Japan

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with face perception atypicalities, and atypical experience with faces has been proposed as an underlying explanation. Studying the own-race advantage (ORA) for face recognition can reveal the effect of experience on face perception in ASD, although the small number of studies in the area present mixed findings. This study probed the ORA in ASD by comparing two cultural groups simultaneously for the first time. Children with ASD in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26) were compared with age- and ability-matched typically developing (TD) children in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26). Participants completed a two-alternative forced-choice task, whereby they had to recognize a just seen face from a foil which was manipulated in one of four ways (IC: identity change; EE: easy eyes; HE: hard eyes; HM: hard mouth). Face stimuli were Asian and Caucasian, and thus the same stimuli were own and other race depending on the cultural group. The ASD groups in the UK and Japan did not show impaired face recognition abilities, or impairments with recognizing faces depending on manipulations to the eye region, and importantly they showed an ORA. There was considerable heterogeneity in the presence of the ORA in ASD and TD and also across cultures. Children in Japan had higher accuracy than children in the UK, and TD children in Japan did not show an ORA. This cross-cultural study challenges the view that atypical experiences with faces lead to a reduced/absent ORA in ASD.

Learning context and the other-race effect: Strategies for improving face recognition

People recognize faces of their own race more accurately than faces of other races-a phenomenon known as the "Other-Race Effect" (ORE). Previous studies show that training with multiple variable images improves face recognition. Building on multi-image training, we take a novel approach to improving own- and other-race face recognition by testing the role of learning context on accuracy. Learning context was either contiguous, with multiple images of each identity seen in sequence, or distributed, with multiple images of an identity randomly interspersed among different identities. In two experiments, East Asian and Caucasian participants learned own- and other-races faces either in a contiguous or distributed order. In Experiment 1, people learned each identity from four highly variable face images. In Experiment 2, identities were learned from one image, repeated four times. In both experiments we found a robust other-race effect. The effect of learning context, however, differed depending on the variability of the learned images. The distributed presentation yielded better recognition when people learned from single repeated images (Exp. 1), but not when they learned from multiple variable images (Exp. 2). Overall, performance was better with multiple-image training than repeated single image training. We conclude that multiple-image training and distributed learning can both improve recognition accuracy, but via distinct processes. The former broadens perceptual tolerance for image variation from a face, when there are diverse images available to learn. The latter effectively strengthens the representation of differences among similar faces, when there is only a single learning image.

Development of the other-race effect in Malaysian-Chinese infants

Little is known about how infants born and raised in a multiracial environment process own- and other-race faces. We investigated face recognition of 3- to 4-month-old (N = 36) and 8- to 9-month-old (N = 38) Chinese infants from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a population that is considered multiracial, using female and male faces that are of infants' own-race (Chinese), experienced other-race (Malay) and less experienced other-race (Caucasian-White). Three- to 4-month-olds recognized own-race female faces, whereas 8- to 9-month-olds also recognized experienced other-race female faces (Malay) in addition to own-race female faces (Chinese). Furthermore, infants from this population did not show recognition for male faces at any age. This contrasts with 8- to 9-month-old British-White infants (Tham, Bremner, & Hay, ), a group that is considered single-race, who recognized female and male own-race faces. It appears that for infants born and raised in a multiracial environment, there is a developmental shift from a female-based own-race recognition advantage to a female-based own- and experienced other-race advantage that may relate to infants' social and caregiving experiences.

Racial Bias Increases False Identification of Black Suspects in Simultaneous Lineups

People are better able to correctly identify the faces of individuals who belong to their own race. Research linking the cross-race effect in face recognition to racial attitudes has been limited to explicit measures and sequential presentation formats. Using a simultaneous lineup task, our results from two studies revealed a systematic relationship between explicit racial bias and increased false identification of Black faces. We observed inconsistent evidence to suggest that individual differences in implicit attitudes impact judgments of Black faces. Nevertheless, nonconscious activation of crime-related concepts prior to encoding facial targets impaired White perceivers’ accuracy for Black faces. Nonconscious priming of crime concepts did not affect White perceivers’ judgments of White faces. Thus, among Whites, racial bias, as a function of both individual differences and contextual cues, can increase the false identification of Black faces in simultaneous lineups. Theoretical and legal implications for face recognition and eyewitness memory are discussed.

Face race processing and racial bias in early development: A perceptual-social linkage

Infants have asymmetrical exposure to different types of faces (e.g., more human than other-species, more female than male, and more own-race than other-race). What are the developmental consequences of such experiential asymmetry? Here we review recent advances in research on the development of cross-race face processing. The evidence suggests that greater exposure to own- than other-race faces in infancy leads to developmentally early perceptual differences in visual preference, recognition, category formation, and scanning of own- and other-race faces. Further, such perceptual differences in infancy may be associated with the emergence of implicit racial bias, consistent with a Perceptual-Social Linkage Hypothesis. Current and future work derived from this hypothesis may lay an important empirical foundation for the development of intervention programs to combat the early occurrence of implicit racial bias.

Face recognition is similarly affected by viewpoint in school-aged children and adults

There is an ongoing debate on the question when face processing abilities mature. One aspect that has been part of this debate is the ability to recognize faces in and across different viewpoints. Here, we tested 128 participants consisting of school-age children (ages, 5–10 years) and adults (ages, 19–37 years) in two experiments to investigate the effects of different viewpoints (including front, three-quarter, profile view) on face recognition during development. Furthermore, we compared recognition performance for faces to that of another object category (cars). In the first experiment (n = 88) we tested if the pattern of performance for faces presented in different viewpoints is similar in school-aged children and adults. Participants completed a two-alternative-forced-choice (2AFC) memory task comprising images of both faces and cars in front, three-quarter and profile view, which were presented in the same viewpoint during learning and testing. In the second experiment (n = 40) we tested if face recognition is similarly affected by viewpoint changes in children and adults. In this experiment the 2AFC memory task included a change of viewpoint between learning and testing. While in both experiments we found higher recognition performance for faces with increasing age, the overall pattern of both viewpoint and viewpoint-change-effects and also the difference between view-change- and no-change-conditions was similar across age groups. In contrast to faces, no viewpoint effects were observed in cars (experiment 1), viewpoint change effects, however, were similar for cars and faces (experiment 2). In sum, our results suggest early maturity of the ability to recognize faces in and across different viewpoints.

Development of Effective Connectivity during Own- and Other-Race Face Processing: A Granger Causality Analysis

Numerous developmental studies have suggested that other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition emerges as early as in infancy and develops steadily throughout childhood. However, there is very limited research on the neural mechanisms underlying this developmental ORE. The present study used Granger causality analysis (GCA) to examine the development of children's cortical networks in processing own- and other-race faces. Children were between 3 and 13 years. An old-new paradigm was used to assess their own- and other-race face recognition with ETG-4000 (Hitachi Medical Co., Japan) acquiring functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data. After preprocessing, for each participant and under each face condition, we obtained the causal map by calculating the weights of causal relations between the time courses of [oxy-Hb] of each pair of channels using GCA. To investigate further the differential causal connectivity for own-race faces and other-race faces at the group level, a repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the GCA weights for each pair of channels with the face race task (own-race face vs. other-race face) as the within-subject variable and the age as a between-subject factor (continuous variable). We found an age-related increase in functional connectivity, paralleling a similar age-related improvement in behavioral face processing ability. More importantly, we found that the significant differences in neural functional connectivity between the recognition of own-race faces and that of other-race faces were modulated by age. Thus, like the behavioral ORE, the neural ORE emerges early and undergoes a protracted developmental course.

Dynamic Emotional Faces Generalise Better to a New Expression but not to a New View

Prior research based on static images has found limited improvement for recognising previously learnt faces in a new expression after several different facial expressions of these faces had been shown during the learning session. We investigated whether non-rigid motion of facial expression facilitates the learning process. In Experiment 1, participants remembered faces that were either presented in short video clips or still images. To assess the effect of exposure to expression variation, each face was either learnt through a single expression or three different expressions. Experiment 2 examined whether learning faces in video clips could generalise more effectively to a new view. The results show that faces learnt from video clips generalised effectively to a new expression with exposure to a single expression, whereas faces learnt from stills showed poorer generalisation with exposure to either single or three expressions. However, although superior recognition performance was demonstrated for faces learnt through video clips, dynamic facial expression did not create better transfer of learning to faces tested in a new view. The data thus fail to support the hypothesis that non-rigid motion enhances viewpoint invariance. These findings reveal both benefits and limitations of exposures to moving expressions for expression-invariant face recognition.

Experience with headwear influences the other-race effect in 4-year-old children

The other-race effect (ORE) implies the better recognition of faces of one's own race compared with faces of a different race. It demonstrates that face recognition is shaped by daily experience with human faces. Such experience mainly includes structural information of own-race faces and also information on the way faces are usually seen, as a whole or partly covered by scarves or other headwear. In two experiments, we investigated how this mode of presentation is related to the occurrence of the ORE during childhood. In Experiment 1, 4-year-old German children (N = 104), accustomed to seeing faces without headwear in daily life, were asked to recognize female Caucasian or African faces, presented either as a whole or wearing a woolen hat, in a forced choice paradigm. In Experiment 2, 4-year-olds from rural Cameroon (N = 70), accustomed to seeing faces with and without headwear in daily life, participated in the same task. In both groups, the ORE was present in the familiar mode of presentation, that is, in whole faces in German children and in whole and partly covered faces in Cameroonian children. The results are discussed in relation to the role of experience for face recognition processes.

Both children and adults scan faces of own and other races differently

Extensive behavioral and neural evidence suggests that processing of own-race faces differs from that of other-race faces in both adults and infants. However, little research has examined whether and how children scan faces of own and other races differently for face recognition. In this eye-tracking study, Chinese children aged from 4 to 7 years and Chinese adults were asked to remember Chinese and Caucasian faces. None of the participants had any direct contact with foreign individuals. Multi-method analyses of eye-tracking data revealed that regardless of age group, proportional fixation duration on the eyes of Chinese faces was significantly lower than that on the eyes of Caucasian faces, whereas proportional fixation duration on the nose and mouth of Chinese faces was significantly higher than that on the nose and mouth of Caucasian faces. In addition, the amplitude of saccades on Chinese faces was significantly lower than that on Caucasian faces, potentially reflecting finer-grained processing for own-race faces. Moreover, adults' fixation duration/saccade numbers on the whole faces, proportional fixation percentage on the nose, proportional number of saccades between AOIs, and accuracy in recognizing faces were higher than those of children. These results together demonstrate that an abundance of visual experience with own-race faces and a lack of it with other-race faces may result in differential facial scanning in both children and adults. Furthermore, the increased experience of processing faces may result in a more holistic and advanced scanning strategy in Chinese adults.

Neural correlates of own- and other-race face recognition in children: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

The present study used the functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) methodology to investigate the neural correlates of elementary school children's own- and other-race face processing. An old-new paradigm was used to assess children's recognition ability of own- and other-race faces. FNIRS data revealed that other-race faces elicited significantly greater [oxy-Hb] changes than own-race faces in the right middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus regions (BA9) and the left cuneus (BA18). With increased age, the [oxy-Hb] activity differences between own- and other-race faces, or the neural other-race effect (NORE), underwent significant changes in these two cortical areas: at younger ages, the neural response to the other-race faces was modestly greater than that to the own-race faces, but with increased age, the neural response to the own-race faces became increasingly greater than that to the other-race faces. Moreover, these areas had strong regional functional connectivity with a swath of the cortical regions in terms of the neural other-race effect that also changed with increased age. We also found significant and positive correlations between the behavioral other-race effect (reaction time) and the neural other-race effect in the right middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus regions (BA9). These results taken together suggest that children, like adults, devote different amounts of neural resources to processing own- and other-race faces, but the size and direction of the neural other-race effect and associated functional regional connectivity change with increased age.

Developmental Origins of the Other-Race Effect

The other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition refers to better recognition memory for faces of one's own race than faces of another race-a common phenomenon among individuals living in primarily mono-racial societies. In this article, we review findings suggesting that early visual and sociocultural experiences shape one's processing of familiar and unfamiliar race classes and give rise to the ORE within the 1st year of life. However, despite its early development, the ORE can be prevented, attenuated, and even reversed given experience with a novel race class. Social implications of the ORE are discussed in relation to development of race-based preferences for social partners and racial prejudices.