DO FOREIGN FACES REALLY LOOK ALIKE

White subjects judged the degree of apparent resemblance of pairs of Japanese and pairs of white American faces using a 10-step psychometric scale. Judgments were made either in a “perceptual” condition (both faces seen simultaneously) or in a “memory” condition (sequential presentation, zero time between faces). Mean resemblance judgments were not affected by the method of presenting the pairs. Contrary to the results obtained in earlier investigations, Japanese and all women’s faces were judged to be significantly more alike than white and all men’s faces. No interactions were significant. These data, considered alone, support the hypothesis that Japanese faces are perceived to be more alike than white faces. However, these results, when considered in the context of the results of the earlier studies, are not compelling evidence for the homogeneity hypothesis. It is unlikely that the other-race memory effect can be accounted for by the differences in judged similarity of Japanese compared to white faces. © 1979, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.