After many, many years, the Nature versus Nurture debate still continues. It is applicable to nearly all psychological topics; including face recognition. ScienceDaily recognizes a study that attempts to show that nurture, not nature has a significant role in a person's ability to recognize faces. Click here to read the article.
The article's findings are highly interesting because the study compared the fixation bases, or where people look, in order to determine whose face is whose. They specifically compared Western Caucasians with East Asians. Westerners tend to look at specific facial features, such as the eyes and the mouth. On the other hand, East Asians focus on the nose and the center of the face. The following picture helps to depict the findings. The Western Caucasian (WC) results are in red and the East Asian (EA) results are in blue.
Though these results are intriguing, they are not the only explanation for facial recognition. The lower part of our temporal lobe responds to faces; nature plays a role in facial recognition. Without our genes (nature), we would not have developed a working temporal lobe to recognize faces.
Both the environment and our genetics play a role in our ability to recognize faces. Both of these need to be considered when looking at facial recognition because nature and nurture, together, affect our abilities.
This is very interesting to learn about how people from different parts of the world tend to focus on different areas of the face. I think it would be fascinating to do a study of people throughout all of the regions of the world. I'm curious as to which countries tend to focus on the same parts of the facial structure. If there are certain groups that focus on these same features, could these differences and similarities be attributed to each of the cultures of the regions? Also, is it a possibility in the future to genetically develop more efficient or better working temporal lobes which would make it easier for people to recognize other faces?