The Buzz: Facial Recognition and Society

i-1120df14dcfe4a302478e16ec64ab20a-image-300.jpgHow do we remember, collect, and recognize faces, and do sex and race have any role in how we process and treat faces, and ultimately people? On Collective Imagination, Peter Tu writes about how researchers can use differing theories of facial recognition to further developments in digital security technologies, citing that "this knowledge captured from this domain is so ancient and convoluted that it may not readily yield the practical insights that we seek." Over on Cognitive Daily, Dave Munger discusses a study looking at how we process masculine versus feminine faces, reporting that "sex clearly plays a role in face recognition and processing, but some aspects of face processing are independent of the sex of the face being processed." And Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science covers a paper examining whether or not there is a link between "poorer facial discrimination and greater racial discrimination."

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