是亞洲人或白種人？以變形臉孔典範探討台灣學齡期兒童種族分類的發展

Asian or Caucasian? Exploring the Development of Race Categorization in Taiwanese School-Aged Children Using a Morphing Face Paradigm

廣義的他種族效應係指人們對本種族與他種族臉孔的處理方式有別，包括辨認本種族臉孔的優勢以及對混合種族臉孔的歸類偏誤。先前的種族臉孔歸類研究多以西方白種人社會為模型，本研究欲延伸至單一種族的台灣社會，我們採用變形臉孔典範探討台灣成人與學齡期兒童對種族混合臉孔的分類表現。實驗一為成人（N = 33）的種族分類作業，測試成人對不同比例亞洲人／白人混合臉孔的種族分類傾向；實驗二為學齡期兒童，測試7～8歲（N =21）、9～10歲（N = 22）與11～12歲（N = 22）兒童的種族分類傾向。結果發現，隨變形臉孔中的亞洲人成分增加，參與者將該臉孔分類為亞洲人的比率隨之提高；而針對亞洲人成分50%的臉孔，7～8歲組傾向將其歸類為亞洲人，而9～10歲組、11～12歲組及成人則都傾向將之歸類為白人。反應時間分析顯示愈靠近兩個端點的反應時間愈短（表示兩端的臉孔容易歸類），愈靠近中間的臉孔反應時間愈長（較困難）。最後，曲線擬合結果顯示，成人將目標臉孔分類為亞洲人的機率達一半（閾值），所需的亞洲人成分為56.01%；7～8歲組的閾值為49.52%，表現出中立的歸類傾向；而9～10歲及11～12歲組的閾值分別為54.27%、53.13%，有隨年齡略增加的趨勢。整體而言，本研究提供種族臉孔歸類偏誤在兒童期發展的跨文化證據。

The broadly defined other-race effect (ORE) refers to differential processing for own- and other-race faces, such as own-race face recognition advantage and categorization bias for racially ambiguous faces. The present study adopted bi-racial (East Asian and Caucasian) morph face images as stimuli, aiming to explore the development of race categorization in Taiwanese school-age children and adults. In Experiment 1, we tested 33 adults (17 females) on their race categorization of Asian/White morphed faces. In Experiment 2, we tested 65 school-age children (34 girls), divided into three age groups, 7-8 year-olds (N = 21), 9-10 year-olds (N = 22), and 11-12 year-olds (N = 22), with the same task. The morphed face stimuli contained 11 levels (from A100/C0 (100% Asian) to A0/C100 (100% White) in 10% increment); both children and adults were asked to categorize each of the morphed faces as either Asian or Caucasian. The results showed that, as the Asian face component increased, the participants were more likely to categorize the morphed face as Asian. Importantly, for the 50% Asian/White racially ambiguous faces: 7-8 year-olds categorized the faces as Asian whereas 9-10 year-olds, 11-12 year-olds, and adults categorized the face as White. Moreover, the reaction times for the morphed faces of nearly equal Asian and White components (e.g., A50/C50 or A60/C40) were the longest among all, indicating that those faces were rather difficult to categorize. Lastly, we adopted curve fitting (using a 4-parameter sigmoidal function) to estimate individuals’ threshold of the Asian component for categorizing as ＂Asian.＂ The adults' group mean threshold was 56.01%; the group mean thresholds of 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 year-olds were 49.52%, 54.27%, and 53.13%, respectively, showing a tendency of increasing threshold from age 7 to 12. In summary, our findings provide a cross-cultural comparison on the development of race categorization in school-age children.