Cognitive and somatic anxiety during encoding impairs own-race face-memory, but does not eliminate the own-race bias

Poor face-recognition accuracy can have dramatic consequences, for example, in criminal justice settings. Although it is well-established that anxiety and race impact face-recognition accuracy, little is known about the interaction between these factors. My thesis showed these factors do interact, with reduced own-race face-recognition accuracy when state anxious. This interaction occurred when state anxiety was induced during encoding, but not during retrieval. Moreover, a cognitive and somatic anxiety induction produced similar effects. These results will advance theory by highlighting the importance of examining co-occurring factors when measuring the determinants of face-recognition accuracy, and have important implications for criminal justice settings.