Facial recognition - racial differences

Just doing a bit of preliminary research for an article I am thinking of writing (I am a freelance journalist).

Hope this doesn't sound bad but basically... was at a big salsa event a while ago and was talking to a guy I met during the day and said I would look out for him for a dance later. But when he went off, I realised I couldn't visualise his face and wondered if I was going to recognise him later if he came up to me dressed totally differently. To be honest, I was mortified as I am white and he was black and the whole thing has shades of that 'they all look the same' racist shite.

I am generally really good at recognising faces, even of people I've not seen for years and years but, when I got to thinking about it, I realised that it seems to apply to recognising white people a lot more than to people of other ethnicities. I also noticed that, when I pick out a guy I don't know but want to dance with, if he is a different ethnicity to me, I'm more likely to take note of what he's wearing of how he's dancing so I can find him later than his facial characteristics.

Today I saw that someone at a university psychology department is doing a research project on how we learn to read faces in terms of recognition, although that's just focusing on oriental people. Thought I would do a little bit of research myself. As salsa dancers, we tend to mix with a with people of a lot of different ethnicities, and often don't spend loads of time talking to them, so was wondering if anyone has any experiences, perspectives they would share with me. Presumably it works the other way round too.

Thanks

Maybe this isn't relevant to your post, but the facial recognition term caught me: I've been editing my photos recently in Picasa, google's photo organiser. It has a facial recognition feature, and it's quite good.

After editing thousands of photos I have made some interesting observations. For example, it makes suggestions in the photos and then you can match the face to a person in your people list, and it often suggests my sister my sisters name instead of mine, but not my brothers. People usually say I resemble more of my sister than my brother, but than was before. Nowadays I don't look like anyone of them, but apparently picasa sees some similarities. It also frequently wants to mix me up with a good friend of mine.

I don't know how the algoritm works, but I assume it measures the distances between some facial features. My point: I think it's clear that we all recognise faces better that look similar to our own, but I think it might even go further, in that we are more likely to become friends with people with similar facial features.

I don't think it has to do with ethnicity specifically. Our brain starts to develop facial recognition at very early age. Perhaps the brain can recognize those faces more easily that it has become accustomed/wired to for long time, especially during growth/development stage. I am making the conjecture based on personal experience. Personally I find it easy to recall and recognize faces of three different ethnic types. The fourth type is the one that at times I may not be able to recall and recognize with the same relative ease.

I am sure in the bay area which doesn't have any one dominant ethnic population, the kids wi

Ron Obvious said:

After editing thousands of photos I have made some interesting observations. For example, it makes suggestions in the photos and then you can match the face to a person in your people list, and it often suggests my sister my sisters name instead of mine, but not my brothers. People usually say I resemble more of my sister than my brother, but than was before. Nowadays I don't look like anyone of them, but apparently picasa sees some similarities. It also frequently wants to mix me up with a good friend of mine.

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Picasa's facial recognition algorithm is pretty good. It has been able to recognize grainy pics, grainy faces in profile mode, etc. Yes it does have miss sometimes, but overall it is good. I am sure it does some kind of distance vector calculation on various features of the face. That will work well when the face's shown in a full frontal image. I noticed it is able to work with profile and partial facial images too (not as successfully, but it is somewhat successful at all itself is good).

There's actually a fair amount written on this subject. Have you done searches on google or in the libraries? I think I heard something on NPR a while back.

White folks, we tend to first notice hair and eye color. In communities where people typically have the same hair and eye color, obviously that would not work. Same goes for hair length, skin tone, etc. I've heard some African folks (from Africa) describe people more in terms of body type, hips, etc. I've literally asked hair & eye color and they don't know, despite the person being white & it being more relevant. African Americans more in terms of nose shape, etc.

Just think about what is often the same vs. different amongst different communities. People are going to describe and recognize based on the differences. Our eyes get used to those ways of thinking and describing to others or ourselves with more exposure.

i remember hearing somewhere that people's facial recognition tends to centre around stand-out features....much easier to remember someone with a giant nose, or a busy monobrow, for example, then forget other things about them. within your own ethnicity (whichever it is) you'll tend to notice features, because the other person's skin-colour etc is what you're used to, so doesnt seem 'stand-out'. when you meet someone of a different ethnicity, if you dont meet a lot of people from that ethnic group, their ethnic difference could be the most obvious stand-out thing, which may mean you remember their ethnic characteristics more than their features.

if you have brown eyes and so do most of the people around you, youre unlikely to remember someone because of their brown eyes, probably choosing a more stand-out feature, yet might easily remember someone by their piercing blue eyes. in a country with predominantly blue eyes, the reverse would be true.

i'm pretty sure that most people are better at differentiating between similar-looking people within their own ethnic grouping. what would be interesting, would be to look at the facial recognition tendencies of people who've grown up and live in a culture where most people are of a different ethnic group to themselves. i'd expect they would be better at distinguishing between the faces theyve seen the most, ie, a different ethnic group to their own.

you could always adopt my ('colour-blind') system for recognising salsa partners: memorise what theyre wearing. i cant help it, am so bad with faces! seriously non-recommended as a system...sometimes i cant recognise someone i met earlier the same night, cuz he's changed his shirt, lol. if i ever 'blank' you...it's not my fault, it's yours, for not wearing the same outfit as last time.

on a side note: ever had that experience where people cant tell the difference between racism and acknowledging racial differences? you know, where a white liberal describes someone to you, desperately trying not to mention the fact that the person being described is black. (as a white person describing someone else white to a third white person, i do still mention the fact that theyre white....skin colour is a major marker for recognising someone.)

Regarding the OP,
I can't claim any particular research study but I think for something as specific as visual recognition I would bet that individual capability of what to remember and how to remember it is key. I rarely forget a face yet I rarely remember the name or the context of why the person seems familiar. Sometimes I even forget the names of people I know well (possible reasons: early onset dementia, alzheimers, I just know too many people).
The skill, i.e. combining visual and context memory is something that people in certain professions train to do well because their business success depends on it. If people have to be good at this to make a living, then they should train their memory using standard memory training programs for all others (especially salsa dancers) I suggest: FACEBOOK*

*I have actually used that as an excuse when I have forgotten someone's name: "we're not friended on facebook are we ?"

speaking of talent in facial recognition...

go see Harry at the HK diner just off leicester sq in london. the man is amazing! a gang of about 20 of us used to go in there regularly after bar salsa. after your first visit, Harry knows your name - even if you dont go back again for a couple of years. out-of-town instructors would come once, then on their next visit, years later with different haircuts etc, Harry would greet them by name. amazing, seriously! Harry for president, i say.

(not so great if two of you pop in 18 months after the death of a close friend, and Harry - who remembers everything - goes on and on and on about the last time you were there with that person, until you and your companion are crying into your bubble tea. but hey, pluses and minuses)

Thanks for really interesting comments, everyone.

bailar y tocar said:

(especially salsa dancers) I suggest: FACEBOOK*

*I have actually used that as an excuse when I have forgotten someone's name: "we're not friended on facebook are we ?"

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Facebook is a great tool especially for the salsa community, it really help to keep track of the faces and names.