Global forces are underway that result in opportunities for visibly different ethnic groups to interact in public contexts on an increasingly equal basis. The effects of increased social interaction and of changing social and legal contexts on perceptions of and memory for individuals of other groups is a topic of perennial scholarly interest. The accuracy of cross- racial eyewitness identification is an important area of concern; yet, there is no consensus in the scholarly community about the psychological mechanisms which affect these judgments. This is an area in which there are interesting theoretical developments that have implications for both formal and informal interactions among people of different groups. This project is for a planning grant to facilitate development of a research project that will assess factors associated with global changes in racism, discrimination, and ethnic conflict. The project being planned will focus, in particular, on the effects of social structure, social experience, and attitudes on cross-racial identification in the Republic of South Africa as the legal system of apartheid or "separateness" is dismantled. At the core of the approach is the notion that the relative heterogeneity of the social resources afforded by a particular group will determine the ability of individuals to differentiate on the basis of facial and other appearance. The more homogeneously another race is viewed in social terms, the less likelihood of individual recognition. During this planning period the investigators will (1) establish a multi-national, multi-discipline, multi-racial research team that will participate in the research; (2) travel to South Africa to discuss research plans and study materials; and (3) develop a comprehensive plan for the subsequent research. This research addresses an important dimension of racial and social conflict and has specific implications for cross-racial eyewitness identification and reliability. The results of the study will enable revising existing theory to accommodate multicultural dimensions of racial bias. The research will also contribute to our understanding of broader issues of social perception.
