Title |
Non-Threatening Other-Race Faces Capture Visual Attention: Evidence from a Dot-Probe Task
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, October 2012
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0046119 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Shahd Al-Janabi, Colin MacLeod, Gillian Rhodes |
Abstract |
Visual attentional biases towards other-race faces have been attributed to the perceived threat value of such faces. It is possible, however, that they reflect the relative visual novelty of other-race faces. Here we demonstrate an attentional bias to other-race faces in the absence of perceived threat. White participants rated female East Asian faces as no more threatening than female own-race faces. Nevertheless, using a new dot-probe paradigm that can distinguish attentional capture and hold effects, we found that these other-race faces selectively captured visual attention. Importantly, this demonstration challenges previous interpretations of attentional biases to other-race faces as threat responses. Future studies will need to determine whether perceived threat increases attentional biases to other-race faces, beyond the levels seen here. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Egypt | 2 | 67% |
United States | 1 | 33% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 2 | 67% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 33% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 2 | 3% |
Netherlands | 1 | 1% |
Austria | 1 | 1% |
Iran, Islamic Republic of | 1 | 1% |
Canada | 1 | 1% |
Japan | 1 | 1% |
Luxembourg | 1 | 1% |
Unknown | 63 | 89% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 25% |
Student > Master | 11 | 15% |
Researcher | 9 | 13% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 7 | 10% |
Professor | 5 | 7% |
Other | 13 | 18% |
Unknown | 8 | 11% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Psychology | 47 | 66% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 3 | 4% |
Sports and Recreations | 2 | 3% |
Neuroscience | 2 | 3% |
Social Sciences | 2 | 3% |
Other | 5 | 7% |
Unknown | 10 | 14% |