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A Lower-Class Advantage in Face Memory.
- Source :
- Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin; Feb2024, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p285-298, 14p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- People remember what they deem important. In line with research suggesting that lower-class (vs. higher class) individuals spontaneously appraise other people as more relevant, we show that social class is associated with the habitual use of face memory. We find that lower-class (vs. higher class) participants exhibit better incidental memory for faces (i.e., spontaneous memory for faces they had not been instructed to memorize; Studies 1 and 2). No social-class differences emerge for faces participants are instructed to learn (Study 2), suggesting that this pattern reflects class-based relevance appraisals rather than memory ability. Study 3 extends our findings to eyewitness identification. Lower-class (vs. higher-class) participants' eyewitness accuracy is less impacted by the explicit relevance of a target (clearly relevant thief vs. incidental bystander). Integrative data analysis shows a robust negative association between social class and spontaneous face memory. Preregistration (Studies 1 and 3) and cross-cultural replication (Study 2) further strengthen the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01461672
- Volume :
- 50
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 175386784
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221125599