Wilkine Brutus explains why people outside of your race may all look the same to you.
Asians look alike. Sure. To the untrained eye, all East Asians (Korean-Chinese-Japanese) look exactly alike. Could the same be said of you? Absolutely! To the untrained East Asian eyes, you also look alike.
Unfortunately, there is a racial tinge behind the statements. When put out of context (or deliberately meant to demean) the statement “all Asians look alike” is blatantly racist and yet, innocently ignorant.
So, why do we all look alike and can this cognitive error be avoided?
YES– there is a psychological and behavioral study which provides the answer to both.
Cross-race effect, according to Wikipedia, “is the tendency for people of one race to have difficulty recognizing and processing faces and facial expressions of members of a race or ethnic group other than their own.” The Wiki post included over 25 scientific references to back up the term.
There you have it: you’re now able to define your cognitive error and try hard to distinguish people of other race. It will decrease your urge to stereotype. Simply being aware of this error decreases the chance of being disrespectful and rude. But, what are specific ways to reduce cross-race effect? Do we simply meet more Asians? Or Blacks? Or Whites? Perhaps.
It’s better to hold judgement in all situations, Always Ask, never assume! According to the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, “A study was done in which participants were forewarned about cross-race effect and the idea that viewing individuals holistically according to stereotypes does not lead to the correct identification of facial expressions.” They went on to say:
“Instead, participants were encouraged to focus on individual facial features. Results from this study showed that the cross-race effect could be reduced and sometimes even eliminated when participants were wary of it. Therefore, cross-race effect may be a result of people using stereotypes to holistically process faces rather than analytically view individual parts of faces to identify an emotion.”
There you have it. Practice makes faces perfect. Or…do they?
After photos from a South Korean (Daegu) beauty pageant went viral, the age-old question, “do Asians look alike” took center stage. Discussions about plastic surgery, lack of physical authenticity, Photoshop, and make-up were some of the themes which filled the debate sphere.
Before you join that debate, once again…look at the original photos and train your eyes. It’ll help eradicate some of the stereotypes. Here is a video detailing my accounts of mistaken identity. Please, subscribe and share!
Follow Wilkine on Twitter: @WilkineBrutus
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Were those women pictured supposed to look the same? I taught at a school with a number of east and southeast asian students, including koreans, han, yamato, and thai among others. I often feel like people who say they all look alike aren’t paying attention.
What I’m more interested in is what it’s like being a dark-skinned english teacher in South Korea. I was discouraged from teaching in Korea because I was told dark-skinned people wouldn’t be accepted there. Granted, that was 15 years ago – perhaps things have changed?
You want a little lesson in the futility of rascism run “all Asians look alike” past an Asian…
WTF is a shovel face? I’m not sure- but I’ve heard the phrase used twice to describe another tribe of Asians.
“shovel face” is a nasty remark about how ones facial features don’t meet the “classic” conventional beauty standard of depth variance , ie flat faced. normally a racially in-group insult
Dude! Awesome work! I love it!
By the way, they all look DIFFERENT to me, especially when I look into their hearts.
Growing up and living in Queens / NYC was a bit different that way. I couldn’t understand the issue…..those S Korean contestants looked like variants on a theme, same as most caucasian Beauty contestants do in relation to each other. But each was unique in their own subtle way…… culturally conventional yet very pretty women,