The self can be associated with novel faces of in-group and out-group members: A cross-cultural study

Abstract

The self can be associated with arbitrary images, such as geometric figures or unknown faces. By adopting a cross-cultural perspective, we explored in two experiments whether the self can be associated with faces of unknown people from different ethnic groups. In Experiment 1, Asian Japanese participants completed a perceptual matching task, associating Asian or White faces with themselves. The same task was used in Experiment 2 with White Italians. Both experiments showed a reliable association between the self and facial stimuli. Importantly, this association was similar for both Asian and White faces. Additionally, no correlations were found between the strength of this association and an index of implicit bias towards Asian and White individuals. These results suggest that the self is malleable and can incorporate social stimuli from different groups.