Abstract
<jats:p>This study is the first to investigate the “other-race effect” in the context of perceiving physical strength from morphological markers of the male face, using cross-populational data from individuals of Mongoloid and Caucasoid ancestry. The study sample comprised 1206 participants of Russian and Tuvan ethnicity who rated standardized facial morphs constructed using geometric morphometrics to represent low and high physical strength. Statistical analysis was performed using cumulative link mixed models (CLMM) for ordinal data. All participant groups significantly distinguished between strong and weak faces among men of both their own and the other ethnic group. Taken together, the results of this and earlier studies indicate the existence of widespread, shared across the human species morphological cues in the male face that are associated with physical strength, which people can recognize regardless of their own ethnicity. At the same time, differences in recognition accuracy were found: Russian respondents demonstrated higher accuracy when assessing representatives of their own ethnic group, which is consistent with the classic “own-race effect”. Tuvan respondents showed an inverted pattern — higher accuracy in assessing Russian faces, which was driven by a more precise recognition of low physical strength cues in Russian men.</jats:p>