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Extrapolating from B. L. Fredrickson’s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory, the authors hypothesized that positive emotion may reduce the own-race bias (ORB) in facial recognition. In Experiments 1 and 2, Caucasian participants (N = 89) viewed Black and White faces for a recognition task. They viewed videos eliciting joy, fear, or neutrality before learning (Experiment 1) or testing (Experiment 2). Results reliably supported the hypothesis. Joy experienced before either learning or testing improved recognition of Black faces and significantly reduced the ORB relative to fear or neutral states. Discussion centers on possible mechanisms for ORB reduction, including improvements in holistic processing and promotion of a common-ingroup identity due to positive emotions. 3 Positive Emotion Eliminates ORB When describing people of a different race, it is not uncommon to hear someone exclaim “they all look the same to me. ” This colloquial phrase describes one of the more reliable empirical findings, the own-race bias (ORB) in face recognition. Generally people are less able to recognize and distinguish between people of a different race than people of their own race (Slone, Brigham, & Meissner, 2000; Meissner & Brigham, 2001). This recognition bias is prevalent among all racial groups (Ng & Lindsay, 1994; Teitelbaum & Geiselman, 1997), but some evidence suggests the effect is most pronounced for Caucasians viewing racial minorities (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). The prevalence of the bias has significant practical and societal costs. For instance, the ORB makes cross-racial eyewitness identifications highly unreliable and has dire consequences for the crimina