Identity Documents Bias Face Matching

TY - JOUR

T1 - Identity Documents Bias Face Matching

AU - Feng, Xinran

AU - Burton, A. Mike

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - Unfamiliar face matching is a difficult task. In typical experiments, viewers see isolated face pairs and have to decide whether they show the same or different people. Recent research shows that embedding faces into passports introduces a response bias, such that viewers are more likely to accept two pictures as showing the same person. Here, we investigate the cause of this bias. In a series of experiments, we vary the apparent authority of the identity documents, testing passports, driving licences, and student ID. By comparison to isolated face matching, the results show a bias towards responding same person for each document type. However, when ID information (name, date of birth, etc.) was removed from documents, the induced bias disappeared. We conclude that bias does not rely on perceived authority, but instead seems to occur only in the presence of identifying information, despite that being task irrelevant.

AB - Unfamiliar face matching is a difficult task. In typical experiments, viewers see isolated face pairs and have to decide whether they show the same or different people. Recent research shows that embedding faces into passports introduces a response bias, such that viewers are more likely to accept two pictures as showing the same person. Here, we investigate the cause of this bias. In a series of experiments, we vary the apparent authority of the identity documents, testing passports, driving licences, and student ID. By comparison to isolated face matching, the results show a bias towards responding same person for each document type. However, when ID information (name, date of birth, etc.) was removed from documents, the induced bias disappeared. We conclude that bias does not rely on perceived authority, but instead seems to occur only in the presence of identifying information, despite that being task irrelevant.

KW - cognition

KW - face perception

KW - perceptual interference

KW - visual matching

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073986299&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0301006619877821

DO - 10.1177/0301006619877821

M3 - Article

C2 - 31550987

AN - SCOPUS:85073986299

SN - 0301-0066

VL - 48

SP - 1163

EP - 1174

JO - Perception

JF - Perception

IS - 12

ER -