AP Psychology 2026 Complete Social Psychology Practice Test

The term that describes the tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than those of other races is known as the Other-Race Effect. This phenomenon occurs because people are typically more familiar with faces from their own racial or ethnic group, which enhances their ability to recognize and remember these faces. Psychological studies have shown that individuals demonstrate better facial recognition accuracy for faces that belong to their own race, likely due to more frequent exposure and social interaction with members of that race.

In contrast, the Cross-Race Effect, while it might seem synonymous with the Other-Race Effect, refers more generally to the difficulty in recognizing faces from a different racial group without specifying the accuracy difference. Stereotype Bias pertains to the way people make assumptions about individuals based on their group identity, but doesn't specifically address recognition of faces. Ingroup Bias refers to the preference for members of one's own group over those from different groups, which may underlie the Other-Race Effect but does not directly describe the phenomenon of facial recall accuracy. Thus, the recognition of the Other-Race Effect specifically captures the cognitive aspect of facial memory differences across racial lines.