Cross-race effect
Also known as Own-race bias
The cross-race effect is the tendency to recognize faces of your own race more easily than faces of other races. It depends partly on how much experience a person has had with different kinds of faces, especially in childhood, and practice at telling such faces apart can shrink it.
In everyday life
An eyewitness confidently picks the wrong person from a lineup because the suspects are of a race the witness has rarely spent time around.
At a new job, you keep mixing up two coworkers whose ethnic background differs from yours, though people who grew up around faces like theirs find them easy to tell apart.
Why your mind does this
Trusting people and things we know is usually safe, because familiarity means we have dealt with them before without harm. Favoring our own group helped our ancestors cooperate with the people they depended on. Liking what is close and known also saves the effort of judging everything from scratch.
Its family, in 30 seconds: Familiar is better
How to spot it
Notice whether you find it harder to remember or distinguish faces from a group you rarely spend time with.
How to counter it
Focus on specific features, such as face shape or hairline, and increase your everyday contact with people from different backgrounds.