Recognizing faces through intuition? The reason why you are more sensitive to female faces.

The other-race effect (ORE) is a robust phenomenon manifested as faster and more accurate recognition of same-race faces, and is particularly stable for female face recognition. However, the underlying mechanism of the female-face recognition advantage in the ORE remains unclear. The present study used two behavioral experiments to explore the ORE under supraliminal and subliminal conditions by systematically manipulating the presentation time of the first face. The results showed that the ORE became increasingly significant as the involvement of cognitive resources decreased in the supraliminal condition, and this effect was primarily driven by female-face materials. Under the subliminal condition, the ORE was attenuated overall but persisted for female-face materials. These findings suggest that the ORE is modulated by cognitive resource availability, and that same-race female face recognition may reflect a processing mode consistent with intuitive processing, potentially operating with limited cognitive resources.