Current studentsExisting staffContact us
 

Shining a light on race: Contrast and assimilation effects in the perception of skin tone and racial typicality

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorBrooks, K.R.
dc.contributor.authorSturman, D.
dc.contributor.authorGwinn, O.S.
dc.date.issued2020
dc.descriptionPublished: 27 November 2020
dc.description.abstractResearchers have long debated the extent to which an individual’s skin tone influences their perceived race. Brooks and Gwinn (2010) demonstrated that the race of surrounding faces can affect the perceived skin tone of a central target face without changing perceived racial typicality, suggesting that skin lightness makes a small contribution to judgments of race compared to morphological cues (the configuration and shape of the facial features). However, the lack of a consistent light source may have undermined the reliability of skin tone cues, encouraging observers to rely disproportionately on morphological cues instead. The current study addresses this concern by using 3D models of male faces with typically Black African or White European appearances that are illuminated by the same light source. Observers perceived target faces surrounded by White faces to have darker skin than those surrounded by Black faces, particularly for faces of intermediate lightness. However, when asked to judge racial typicality, a small assimilation effect was evident, with target faces perceived as more stereotypically White when surrounded by White than when surrounded by Black faces at intermediate levels of typicality. This evidence of assimilation effects for perceived racial typicality despite concurrent contrast effects on perceived skin lightness supports the previous conclusion that perceived skin lightness has little influence on judgments of racial typicality for racially ambiguous faces, even when lighting is consistent.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityKevin R. Brooks, Daniel Sturman and O. Scott Gwinn
dc.identifier.citationFrontiers in Psychology, 2020; 11:604617-1-604617-7
dc.identifier.doi10.3389/fpsyg.2020.604617
dc.identifier.issn1664-1078
dc.identifier.issn1664-1078
dc.identifier.orcidSturman, D. [0000-0002-5025-598X]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/130412
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherFrontiers Media
dc.rightsCopyright © 2020 Brooks, Sturman and Gwinn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.604617
dc.subjectskin tone; facial morphology; race; assimilation; contrast; face perception; skin tone bias; lightness and brightness illusions
dc.titleShining a light on race: Contrast and assimilation effects in the perception of skin tone and racial typicality
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
hdl_130412.pdf
Size:
609.77 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published version
Download

Collections

Psychology publications