Why do people always think that people of different races than their own all look alike?

Question

I'm not just talking about white people, I mean people of all races.

PS
I'm not racist, I have just always wondered this.

Answer 1

No one knows for sure - yet. However your statement is correct - research from the 1800s to the present day has shown that humans of all races are better at recognizing individuals of their own race than individuals of other races and tend to perceive people of other races as "looking all alike".

Additionally, research has shown that some individuals are better at facial recognition than others - and that some people are "face blind", having a great deal of difficulty in recognizing other individuals without repeated exposure or even at all - nobody knows why this happens either. I wonder if this could be related to Asperger's, autism and Alzheimer's because I have very mild Asperger's and as a child had a great deal of difficulty in identifying emotions and differentiating between individuals of any race (including my own) without repeat exposure - with time and practice this passed, but I suspect my retention is still not as good as the average person and I still occasionally have difficulty identifying people's emotional reactions from facial expressions.

The favorite theory is that humans recognize most easily within their own racial group because they are most familiar with their own group (especially during the critical years from birth to age 5). Where a group is the minority, they will also have good success with recognition of the race of the majority - again, from exposure. Another theory proposes that humans tend to identify people of their own race by individual characteristics first whereas they identify people of other races by racial characteristics first and by individual characteristics only secondarily (but I think this goes back to what you are most familiar with again - I suspect someone who had constant exposure to other races while young would not do this). Another theory is that where a group is more homogeneous, outsiders from less homogeneous groups find it difficult to differentiate between individuals within the more homogeneous group - whereas individuals within the more homogeneous group are subconsciously trained to be more observant of details and thus can more easily differentiate both within their group and with respect to other groups. All of these theories make some sense to me and I would not be surprised if the truth proved to be a combination of all of these theories - or maybe something else altogether!

Some links:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v4/n8/full/nn0801_775.html
http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec00/lookalike.html
http://www.psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/abstracts/Phelps2001.pdf

Answer 2

I think it is more of a stereotypical statement meaning something to the effect of "if youve seen one man (of a particular race) youve seen them all". Regardless of what race you are this would work for all folks of another race. I am not saying that I agree with that statement thats just how I understand it.
Personally, I think it couldnt be more wrong. I think people should earn respect and give respect according to the way they are treated by other people, if a man shows you he respects you then respect him in return, whatever race he may be.
Lets face it a man can be a preacher a policeman fireman doctor regardless of race. He could also be a murderer arsonist rapist or even a racist regardless of race as well.

Answer 3

I'm not sure if it's just being in a school with a lot of Vietnamese kids or what, but I notice a lot of different things between the east Asian races. The Vietnamese have more rounded, soft features, the Japanese and Koreans have a sharp face, and the Chinese have kind of a weird thing with thier eyes... like a little semi-circle.

Sadly, though, a lot of us just say:

Black.
White.
Asian.
Arab.

And leave it at that.

I think it's just that we don't really care about the different races enough to learn about them.

For example, my grandfather's 1/2 Armenian. He looks a little like a white man, but not quite. It's hard to explain.

Answer 4

LOL!!! I've always wondered that too! I think that when looking at another race, sometimes people don't look as closely. I hear that a lot about Asian people, like because their eyes all slant, there can't possibly be any other identifying features, right? I've never really understood this, but I grew up surrounded by people of all different races because of my grandfather's ministries, so I learned to think of people as individuals before the idea of grouping them by race came along.

Answer 5

I think that for many people it's just that they don't take the time to notice the fine details that differentiate people they don't know very well from each other.

I'm white. And, when I go into my child's classroom to volunteer from time to time, all of the little blond girls all look alike to me, too. Just like all of the boys with short brown hair do, all of the girls with long brown hair, all of the boys with shoulder-length blond hair, etc. Not that they look alike, because clearly they don't - I just haven't got to know them well enough to know which one is which yet.

So, it could be that people say that people of different races all look alike because they just don't know them very well as individuals, yet. They just notice the obvious features about them - hair & skin color, age, height, hair style, etc - not the little details that actually differentiate us from each other.

Answer 6

katieiskate had provided an mind-blowing attitude from an IA, so i'm going to objective to grant a attitude from the different end of the spectrum. My adad and that i proportion an extremely comparable kinfolk background. it is so comparable that's that's relatively unlikely in a stranger adoption. We the two originate from colonial American families of quite a few nationalities. My adoptive and organic paternal grandmothers proportion a almost comparable background. My organic maternal grandmother shares an extremely comparable background to my adoptive paternal grandfather. My father and that i the two descend from the comparable proud, thick headed, autonomous inventory that based this us of a. Did it make me experience greater linked? No. As charmed as i became with their ancestors, i became thoroughly shrink off from any wisdom of my own. not understanding is a cruel strategies game. there is not any thank you to evade feeling disconnected as quickly as we are disconnected. the sole thank you to be certain the sensation became to earnings the lacking wisdom. I have no suggestion to grant approximately racial modifications because of the fact i became not located in that difficulty. despite the fact that it would be a mistake to anticipate that by utilising putting a baby right into a kinfolk with an comparable ethnic and cultural background to their own, those easy (yet unknown) bonds might do away with the expression of a feeling of loss. Does it shrink the soreness? not somewhat.

Answer 7

I think it all depends on the person's world view and exposure. People who develop positive relationships and have lots of interaction with different groups of people typically don't think that.

It's those who are insular, self-centered, racist, and xenophobic who refuse to look up and get to know people as fellow human beings.

Answer 8

Most people to not take the time to notice the difference, thus the erroneous beliefs

Answer 9

It probably means they don't see too many of the other race in daily life

Answer 10

They don't it's easy to tell different races from similar ethnic groups apart.