Do white people look the same?

[[TR]SweetSpotOz]

Well, hair colour can be used (and is used a lot) to differentiate white people but all black people have black hair so this could be a factor.

 

[Jumpingmedic]

I believe it is absolutely to do with your exposure to said race.

When your brain learns to classify persons faces it will slowly reject generic information such as skin colour and use subtle features of the face to form its classification.

When you are exposed to someone of a different race (say oriental) your brain will see information that massively conflicts with what it considers "generic" such as skin colour or eye shape. So it automatically concludes it is a different person than anyone you have previously met however it does not have the ability to classify the subtle differences of the new features, over time it can learn this of course


Hope that makes sense, (you can tell I view the mind and brain from the persepective of someone who studies AI ;p)

yup pretty much the same as I was theorising, but it's nice to have some agreement!

 

[Jumpingmedic]

Well, hair colour can be used (and is used a lot) to differentiate white people but all blakc people have black hair so this could be a factor.

Good point, it certainly adds a measure of difficulty to things.

 

[Luke15]

Good point, it certainly adds a measure of difficulty to things.

Not all black people have black hair. Not all white people have blonde hair

 

[RetiredGreyFox]

Think yourself lucky you don't have my problem.
For instance if I saw Spie or Gibbo in Tesco there is a massive chance that I would know their faces but wouldn't be able to place them and it would play on my mind until I remembered.
You wouldn't believe how many people I've worked with but outside of the factory I've had to ask who they are
I had a very embarassing moment in OCUK a couple of weeks ago.
I turned around and there at the back of me was the original owner of OCUK and I started to ramble on.
After a minute he said "Dave, I'm Ritchie the satellite guy, you've got me mixed up with Pete"

 

[divine`]

Not all black people have black hair. Not all white people have blonde hair

Go on then, how many black people do you see with blonde/red hair compared to white people with black/brown/red/blonde?

 

[Fubsy]

Go on then, how many black people do you see with blonde/red hair compared to white people with black/brown/red/blonde?

Wes Brown

 

[divine`]

Wes Brown

Congratulations. That's 1 person.

The point remains, the vast majority of black people have dark hair. White people are mostly either brown or blonde with a reasonably large amount of black and some red too.

 

[Dave]

Wes Brown

Is it actually natural though? Looks dyed to me.

 

[Jumpingmedic]

Not all black people have black hair. Not all white people have blonde hair

I can't think of a single black person ever that doesn't have black hair... *barring dye jobs*

And I never said white people have blonde hair... mostly coz that's not the case

 

[Fubsy]

Is it actually natural though? Looks dyed to me.

Never ever seen Wes Brown with anything other than ginger tbh.

 

[JCBeastie]

There's certainly a genetic element to facial recognition, other races feature sets simply don't match our templates.

However this doesn't mean you're incapable of telling the difference, they're still human.

a lot of it come down to ignorance, I don't have any trouble distinguishing. I hate that people can't tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese for example.

edit: didn't know who Wes Brown was, after Googling, lol. He's not black... Half-caste isn't PC so I guess his ancestry is hybrid.

 

[Jumpingmedic]

There's certainly a genetic element to facial recognition, other races feature sets simply don't match our templates.

However this doesn't mean you're incapable of telling the difference, they're still human.

a lot of it come down to ignorance, I don't have any trouble distinguishing. I hate that people can't tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese for example.

I agree that with training you can tell the difference. But I'm wondering if it comes more naturally to people brought up around faces of a different race.

 

[JCBeastie]

Definately, the more exposure you have the more sensitive you become to the nuances of appearance.

 

[the shadow]

Don king ,what about bald hair?not every Blackman has a afro.

 

[Surfer]

Everyone looks different
Everyone is different

look closer, past the flesh....

 

[Fraggr]

I can tell the difference easily between white, oriental people, and Asian people, but find black people hard sometimes. I don't know why, since I've lived in Barbados and Papua New Guinea.

 

[HangTime]

One thing I think you need to consider is that arguably the biggest distinguishing mark a person has is the colour of their hair. Most black and asian people have dark hair which means that they genuinely do look more alike, IMO.

edit: just noticed that this point has already been raised, and someone came out with an example of Wes Brown. That kinda proves my point - any black person without dark hair is much more likely to be recognised.

 

[daveydave]

I think it might be more to do with what you deem unusual. If someone had a massive scar on their face you might not notice they had a slight squint because you focus on the scar. Similarly it sounds like you don't see a huge amount of people from different races and, as such, when you do see one your mind concentrates on their skin colour rather than something which would help you recognise them from someone else of their race, like the shape of their face or other defining feature. When you see someone of your own race, because their skin colour is not unusual to you, it fades into the background to be overtaken by something that helps you more easily delineate them from others. The brain is very good at throwing away details that it doesn't deem important and concentrating on those that it thinks are. This, I think, may be one of those situations.

Brilliant explaination..100% spot on

 

[daveydave]

HangTime's post is also excellent