ツツ’s Reviews > Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember > Status Update
ツツ
is on page 71 of 248
“Have you ever heard someone say they have difficulty identifying people who belong to a different racial category, remarking that they 'all look the same'? the cross-race effect (or own-race bias).”
I happen to have been thinking about there’s a certain racial group that exhibits limited physical diversity among its members, perhaps due to a relatively small gene pool despite its large population.
— Apr 23, 2025 08:55AM
I happen to have been thinking about there’s a certain racial group that exhibits limited physical diversity among its members, perhaps due to a relatively small gene pool despite its large population.
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ツツ’s Previous Updates
ツツ
is on page 78 of 248
“Memory is a costly process for your brain, requiring much energy and attention to maintain and update. It therefore makes sense that we are set up to optimise on-the-go decision-making, even if that occasionally means blending two sources of information instead of separately quarantining them in our memory stores.”
— Apr 23, 2025 09:42AM
This group has experienced prolonged founder effects and significant population bottlenecks—not necessarily more frequent than other populations, but larger in scale (e.g., famines and wars).
2. Geographic Isolation
While the lack of surname diversity initially seemed like compelling evidence for a small gene pool, surnames primarily track paternal lineage and don’t fully account for out-marriage. However, their somewhat geographic isolation (prior to modern transportation) would have restricted genetic exchange.
These factors led to low heterozygosity. While only a small number of genes govern visible traits, reduced genetic diversity correlates with physical similarity. Given the population’s large size, this homogeneity becomes particularly pronounced. Therefore I don’t think bias and/or lack of exposure fully explain this phenomenon in all cases.