Jennifer Rennels (Psychology) published "" in Perspectives on Psychological Science. Individuals who are Hispanic or Latino make up a substantial portion of the U.S. and world population, yet are vastly underrepresented as both participants and stimuli in the face perception literature. Perceiving and recognizing faces are a critical component of everyday social interactions, but cross-category effects (difficulty recognizing faces from other races or ethnicities) can hinder social interactions. Cross-category effects are the most commonly studied face perception topic with these ethnic groups, but this empirical knowledge should be expanded via culturally relevant considerations. This paper describes: 1) errors individuals display when categorizing target faces; 2) how social status influences identity and cross-category effects; 3) the potential impact of flexible and heterogeneous social identities on face processing; and 4) a critical need for more developmental research.
