Kurt Hugenberg

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Kurt Hugenberg is a leading social psychologist whose research illuminates the intricate interplay between social perception, face processing, and intergroup bias. His work explores how we perceive and categorize others—from human faces to humanoid robots—and how these perceptions shape social outcomes. Hugenberg’s major contributions include demonstrating that social categorization (e.g., by race or emotion) fundamentally alters visual attention and face memory, often reinforcing stereotypes. His highly cited work on the "own-race bias" in face recognition has been instrumental in understanding how perceptual expertise and social motivation drive differential recognition accuracy. With over 4,000 total citations, his research has profound implications for eyewitness testimony, human-robot interaction, and reducing prejudice. Notably, his recent investigations into how beliefs about robots' minds influence social perception (2024, 9 citations) and how robot faces engage face-processing less strongly than human faces (2022, 4 citations) extend his foundational theories into emerging technologies. Hugenberg’s work is essential reading for students and researchers interested in the cognitive and social mechanisms underlying how we see—and mis-see—one another.