ABSTRACT
Keywords: Race perception; Event-related brain potentials; Stereotyping;
Prejudice.
For the social perceiver, faces are indeed special. We are able to extract a
range of important social information from faces very shortly after birth
(e.g., Anzures, Quinn, Pascalis, Slater, & Lee, 2013; de Haan & Nelson,
1999; Ludemann & Nelson, 1988), and, by the time we reach adulthood,
nothing rivals the face for the quantity of social information it can so easily
provide. Emotional state, behavioural intentions, occupational status, mar-
ital success, and a number of traits such as competence, trustworthiness, and
aggressiveness are all readily inferred from faces (Bar, Neta, & Linz, 2006;
Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972; Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, & Hall,
2005; Todorov, Pakrashi, & Oosterhof, 2009; Willis & Todorov, 2006). Not
surprisingly, face perception has been argued to be our most developed
visual skill (Haxby, Hoffman, & Gobinni, 2000).
