Visual processing and emotion perception from ingroup and outgroup facial expressions

When viewing racial ingroup versus outgroup faces, different visual processing strategies are used, resulting in better identification and memory of ingroup faces (Other Race Effect). Similarly, emotion recognition tends to be more accurate from ingroup facial expressions (Ingroup Advantage Effect). This study examines whether differential visual processing strategies for ingroup and outgroup faces extend to emotion perception and how they relate to emotion recognition accuracy. We conducted an eye-tracking experiment with Dutch participants (N = 99) making perceptual emotion judgments of Dutch (ingroup) and Chinese (outgroup) facial expressions. We hypothesised that ingroup and outgroup faces would be visually processed differently and that these differences would relate to emotion recognition accuracy. As expected, we observed different viewing patterns: participants looked longer at the eyes and nose of ingroup faces and at the mouth of outgroup faces. However, differences in visual processing were minimally linked to emotion recognition accuracy, suggesting that accurate emotion decoding involves perceptual processes at different levels and that various looking patterns can lead to correct emotion recognition. These findings extend the Other Race Effect by demonstrating that differential looking patterns occur also during emotion perception, contributing to the understanding of face and emotion perception across racial groups.