Faces

Inspired by something that happened to yours truly this morning.

How good are you at recognizing faces? Are you a super recognizer, a relatively average person on the scale, or do you have prosopagnosia - also called face blindness, an inability to process faces or associate them with names? And if you have problems, how do you go about pinning down who's who?

I suspect I might be face blind to some degree myself. It's a "chicken and egg" dilemma - am I not good at recognizing faces because I'm not a people person, or do I avoid interacting with people because I fear I won't recognize them? Nevertheless, today I had trouble recognizing two people - my neighbor on the same floor of my block, and a delivery guy who just brought me groceries. The first one I quickly figured out was him because he was with his wife, whom I remember because of her bright hair color. The second one, though... I'm still not sure if it's the same one. I kinda suspected it was him by his silver hair and height, but the tattoos, short beard and sunglasses threw me off. It isn't the first time it happens either; for example, when one of my classmates had a haircut and showed it off in a Zoom class two years ago, I almost asked out loud who she was... until I read her name tag and was forced to keep quiet.

My problem is not limited to real life encounters. If two characters in a live-action series dress too similarly or have similar distinctive features, I tend to mix them up until my mom points out to me that I'm making a mistake. I even failed to recognize Ewan McGregor, whom I like a lot, when he showed up in an interview with his head shaved! I also swear Jason Isaacs's face looks different to me in every picture/video for some reason, even in the same damn series. I know for sure I find him really sexy, but sometimes I have trouble believing it's the same person in all pictures and it makes me so mad! Oh, and I can't even begin to count the number of times I've gone "wait, is this [insert actor here]?" only to find out it's someone else whom I knew was similar in appearance to the one I was thinking of.

I'm better at faces than names. Like I'll recognize someone but just not know what their name is. It's pretty embarrassing.

Struggles pretty bad with faces. Suspects two issues:
1. Stresses about the conversation. Watches their face for changes, but not details.

2. Poor visualization in general. Contains too much slight detail. Cannot even visualize the faces of people seen every day very clearly.

Can recognize people on sight, however (if they are in the memory banks). Requires long-term exposure to make it into said memory banks, unfortunately. Lasts quite a while once there.

Performs notably better with names. Helps to see it written, rather than hear it spoken. Forgets a name spoken for the first time within minutes. Improves recall after hearing it a few times.

I think I do well enough but don't exactly know if I'd recognize people the same way if they changed something about their look (like shaving their hair). Personally from past experience though I feel I do well with remembering faces themselves and wouldn't get confused if something else changed physically. What's tough for me is knowing I recognize someone but can't quite remember their name. :'D

I have no issues with recognising faces. In fact I remember a person's face a lot better than their other characteristics.... Say, their name or voice.
On many social events I meet people and when I'm asked (as is the custom around here) whether I recognise them, I express that I do...but when I say I do, I only recognise their face but nothing else. Their hobbies, the memory that we mutually experienced, etc.

Prosopagnosia is scary to think about.
Ah, since we're on the topic, thought it'd be fitting to share a short film wherein the protagonist suffers from it:

Depends mostly on how often I see someone as well as the setting. I'm not gonna remember random passersby on the street. But someone I see on a regular basis, like say a colleague or store clerk I'll recognize easily.

I often struggle more to memorize names, with the dubious plus side of a name being really hard to forget once I do know it. 😅

I'm pretty good with remembering faces. It surprises me that there's something known as face blindness, but I do understand that, for some people, remembering other's faces is hard. I wouldn't say it's something I struggle with, to be honest.

Sandalphon said:

I'm better at faces than names. Like I'll recognize someone but just not know what their name is. It's pretty embarrassing.

Click to expand...

this exactly. it's led to many embarrassing situations, especially if they recognize me and expect me to recognize them.