Article Review of Facial Recognition: Ethnic Differences

1. Identify the Article:

The article is entitled “Facial Recognition: Ethnic Differences.” Although there is no author to the article, it was written in September of 2011 and found through the website psyarticles.com. The article is approximately two pages in length. 

2. Summarize the Article: 

The article bases its conclusions on a study conducted with a group of Caucasian and a group of Chinese residents in the town of Glaslow. The study intended to explore the effect to which ethnicity and culture have on one’s ability to discern certain emotions. That is, do people of different ethnicities visually perceive the emotions on one another’s face in the same way? Or do they see these facial expressions differently because of their ethnic backgrounds? Rachel E. Jack concluded that “Our findings highlight the importance of understanding cultural differences in communication, which is particularly relevant in our increasingly connected world. We hope that our work will facilitate clearer channels of communication between diverse cultures” (1). In other words, there is a correlation between one’s ethnicity and the way they perceive basic emotions. Specifically, Chinese participants read emotions through a more thorough examination of the eyes. Caucasian participants, however, used the mouth and eyebrows to draw their conclusions about the emotion displayed (1). Thus, the experiment concluded that ethnicity does play a role in how one reads emotions. Moreover, this kind of cultural insight and exploration can help in bridging communication gaps between varying ethnicities that might have difficulty understanding one another. 

3. Application to Psychology:

I chose this article because it relates directly to our study of observation and perception. Because observation pertains to the physical act of experiencing, such as vision, we can argue that the initial experiment does involve an examination of observation. However, more importantly, the experiment also implies a greater fascination with the act of perception, or rather how we perceive various stimuli. In short, the experiment pertains to these two terms because it involves the physical act of observing as well as the analytical act of perception. Therefore, these terms directly relate to our course of psychological study. 

4. Student Opinion:

I particularly enjoyed this article. It illuminated attitudes about culture and perception that I had otherwise been unaware of. Although I do not think the author in particular exemplified a bias in this piece, I am concerned about the rather small sample size employed in this experiment. Fifteen individuals can hardly be considered a reliable sample. I also experienced a disjunction between the two studies. Apparently, the study including the Chinese and Caucasian participants was followed up by a second study involving Miami University students. I experienced much difficulty in connecting the two studies, and found few similarities between the two. Essentially, the study conducted at Miami University took the initial experiment in an entirely different direction, thus departing from the initial, more interesting inquiry. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article. I found the information to be insightful, yet I was also able to extract constructive criticism from the piece as well.

Work Cited

Anonymous. (2011, September). Facial Recognition: Ethnic Differences. PsyArticles.com Psychology Articles. http://www.psyarticles.com/perception/race-face.htm