Forensic facial examiners versus super‐recognizers: Evaluating behavior beyond accuracy

Published

August 24, 2021

Author(s)

Carina Hahn, Liansheng Larry Tang, Amy Yates, P. Jonathon Phillips

Abstract

We evaluated the detailed, behavioral properties of face matching performance in two specialist groups: forensic facial examiners and super-recognizers. Both groups compare faces to determine identity with high accuracy and outperform the general population. Typically, facial examiners are highly trained; super-recognizers rely on natural ability. We found distinct behaviors between these two groups. Facial examiners took advantage of the full 7-point identity judgment scale; super-recognizers' judgments clustered toward highly confident decisions. Facial examiners' identity judgments for same-identities and different-identities mirrored each other; those from super-recognizers did not. Facial examiners showed higher identity judgment agreement than super-recognizers. Despite these qualitative differences, both groups showed insight into their own accuracy: more confident people and those who rated the task to be easier tended to be more accurate. These findings show that to better understand and interpret judgments according to the nature of someone's facial expertise, evaluations should assess more than accuracy.

Citation

PsyArXiv Preprints

Issue

6

Pub Weblink

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/hq2ab

Pub Type

Websites

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hq2ab

Local Download

Keywords

biometrics, decision making, facial comparison, facial forensics, facial identification, facial recognition, forensic facial examiner, super-recognizer

Citation

Hahn, C. , Tang, L. , Yates, A. and Phillips, P. (2021), Forensic facial examiners versus super‐recognizers: Evaluating behavior beyond accuracy, PsyArXiv Preprints, [online], https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hq2ab, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=932786, https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/hq2ab (Accessed October 9, 2025)