# how well do East Asians identify ethnic groups by facial features? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-do-east-asians-identify-ethnic-groups-by-facial-features/536282 "2010-04-16T00:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-do-east-asians-identify-ethnic-groups-by-facial-features/536282/61 "2010-04-18T20:53:21Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Please point out to me where I even implied that they _must_ and _do_ look different or reached any a priori conclusion. Dude, all I know is you’re misstating my position, which I have restated for clarification. If you do not disagree with it, wonderful. Sorry for the confusion. > [@](#): > > My only contribution was to call you on the BS that it was “absurd” to even think it was possible, and your claim that as a group Asians themselves do not believe they can. Let me help with the clarification thing again; I don’t claim it’s absurd to think it’s even possible; I claim that it’s absurd to think that there _must_ to be a difference just because they’re separate countries with separate histories. As to whether Asians do or don’t, I make no claims as to whether every single last Asian in the world makes some claim or doesn’t; only that the preponderance of my experience indicates that they don’t, and the participation in this thread supports it. > [@](#): > > Other than that I have been very clear in my position that I think it is reasonable to believe that they can but that allwe have are various, often conflicting, anecdotes and no real evidence upon which to give any definite answer, other than “at least not with 100% reliability”. Congratulations on consistently articulating a vague position that says nothing of interest. It’s been informative. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > And no surprise that you ask for someone’s sense of what those differences are and your only response is "well there’s people with other thoughts. Perhaps I should have been clearer; I was not interested in the question of whether one person in the whole world possessed an opinion on the subject. We already established in this thread that different people have different opinions on the subject. What I’m interested in is some indication of a consistent idea on what these differences are, even if it’s held to be an urban legend or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-do-east-asians-identify-ethnic-groups-by-facial-features/536282/62 "2010-04-18T22:24:27Z")
Let’s see, you said > [@](#): > > if someone said they could tell the difference between a French person and a Polish person on just facial features alone, we’d consider that completely absurd, because it is. But some people swear up and down that they have developed some mysterious sense that enables them to distinguish Japanese from Korean from Han Chinese on facial features alone. … none of those groups has any statistically relevant facial features from the other. … There is no more reason for a Korean and Chinese to look different than a Frenchman and a German, yet some people go on as if they possess some kind of ethnic radar that Asians themselves don’t even claim to have. Talk about a priori… Again, this is GQ, not IMHO, and not making up bullshit answers and stating them as facts. I do not know if Asians have a consistent ability to distinguish between each other by facial characteristics or not and it seems as if the GQ answer is that there is no definitive answer. Yes, in GQ, and in life, sometimes the correct answer is that we do not have information to really know. The statements that it is absurd to consider that there might be, and that there is a definite answer that they cannot because it is established fact that “none of those groups has any statistically relevant facial features from the other”, are, however, false. Your stating that such is not what you claimed is also false. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-do-east-asians-identify-ethnic-groups-by-facial-features/536282.md?page=3)