Juraci Maria da Silva
Different measures of contact had different relationships to discriminability and decisional criteria. Significantly more Blacks mentioned having White Latinos friends than White Latinos mentioned having Blacks friends. Having friends and hanging out with individuals of a different race did not relate to the cognitive capacity to discriminate between faces, but was associated with using a stricter criterion to decide on guilt. Working closely with members of another race did not relate to discriminability or to decisional criterion. Results suggest that same- and cross-race recognition is related to and may depend on the kind of group interaction. This is, in cross-race recognition, the capacity to discriminate between faces is not (necessarily) the best predictor of how decisions are made. Different mechanisms are involved in making a decision, versus simply recognizing a cross-race face, and contact and attitudes likely influence those decisions, having serious implications to multiracial societies.