Abstract:The present study examined how happy facial expressions reinstate infants’ decreased recognition of other-race faces. Using an adapted classical familiarization and visual paired-comparison task with eye-tracking techniques, Experiment 1 demonstrated perceptual narrowing in face recognition from 6 to 9 months of age: whereas 6-month-olds could recognize own-race faces and other-race faces, 9-month-olds only recognized own-race neutral faces, but not other-race neutral faces. Using faces with happy expressions, Experiment 2 showed that 9-month-olds could recognize other-race faces. Eye-tracking results further indicated that happy expressions may influence infants' recognition of other-race faces by altering their scanning patterns. These findings provided direct evidence to support the Perceptual-Social Linkage hypothesis.