Hispanic Faces Elicit Greater Accuracy And Response Times than Caucasian Faces in Emotion Recognition Task: Accuracy Correlated with more Positive Attitudes toward Hispanics

Black faces illicit more threat related biases and emotional responses than white faces (Blair,2002;Wheeler&Fiske,2005). Stereotypic activation also triggers quicker but less accurate responses toward ethnic targets: participants react quicker to armed black than armed white targets, and are more likely to mistake harmless objects for weapons in black than white targets (Correll,2002;Payne,2001). We asked if activation of stereotypes would facilitate quicker and accurate identification of Hispanic emotional expressions. We randomly assigned participants to view pictures of Hispanics engaged in positive or negative activities. Participants then viewed cropped pictures of Hispanic and Caucasian cropped faces, an adopted version similar to the Reading Minds in the Eyes test (Baron-Cohen,et.al.2001). Participants then selected one of four emotion word choices representing the expressed emotion. Accuracy and reaction time to the faces and words were recorded. We also measured Attitudes toward Hispanics (Plant,et.al.2008), Social anxiety (Leibowitz,1987) and Depression (Beck inventory). Coefficient alphas for these scales ranged from .78 to .91. The reliability of the cropped faces was .65. The results showed no main effects of manipulation on reaction time and accuracy of the faces. However, paired t-tests within subjects showed that participants were quicker to respond to Hispanic (M=2215,SD=1039) than to Caucasian faces (M=2601,SD=1333), t(143)=-7.08,pM=.499,SD=.125), and were more accurate in detecting the emotions of Hispanic (M=.499,SD=.125) than of Caucasian (M=.337,SD=.224) faces, t(143)=8.05, r(143)=.20, p=.017. Greater accuracy in detecting the emotional expressions in Hispanic faces was correlated with more positive attitudes toward Hispanics, r(143)=.20, p=.017. These results support prior findings about quicker responses to ethnic targets. However, there was better accuracy in detecting emotions in Hispanic faces. Accuracy may be moderated by more positive attitudes toward Hispanics. The results shows promise for an emerging instrument that assesses emotion detection in Hispanic faces.