"Other-race Effect"

This article that I found stuck out to me , because we have recently been discussing in class about Fusiform face area. This topic is very interesting to me, because I always wondered how the brain is able to distinguish different faces. We meet so many different peoples in our lives and see so many different movies that it becomes so questionable on how that part of the brain is able to break it down. In this article they speak about the movie "The Departed" and when they watched it they were utterly confused on the plot. They explained how it was hard to tell the difference between Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. They think maybe it has something to do with the "other-race effect," which makes it difficult for us to identify people of other races or ethnic groups.This so called "other race effect" is a well established phenomenon that I didnt know about until I read this article. Something that stuck out to me the most was when they said..."It could be because we have more experience of members of our own race and so find it easier remembering their faces. I find this article to be very relative and interesting to think about.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2011/aug/15/people-other-races-look-alike