Do you have trouble recognizing faces?

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I don't think I recognize faces. I'll recognize people by their mannerisms, body type, hair, and especially by seeing them in the context I expect to find them in.

But when the coworker with the funny hair puts on a hat... he becomes a stranger. When a boss who quit the company a while ago shows up at a company party... I fail to recognize her. When a famous actor appears in a different movie, or even in a different scene with different clothes on... I don't know who it is.

But then, the coworker takes his hat off, and he instantly transforms into Gene. My boss tells me who she is and starts smiling and talking, and she looks like herself again. The actor holds his head in that certain way I know him so well for, and all my memories of his face match what is on the screen. With the right cues, familiarity registers in my brain.

Is this a feature of autism, or do I have prosopagnosia on top of autism?

What stories do you have of familiar people becoming strangers?

Edit: Also, the inability to find my way places, build maps in my head, etc. is supposed to be a feature of prosopagnosia. Is that autism as well?

Last edited by minetruly on 08 Jan 2016, 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

That's an autism thing. I have it too. I graduated from a small high school (about 500 students), and I still couldn't identify everyone in my grade by the time I graduated.

It happens to me occasionally too. A few months ago this guy followed me up to my apartment and I didn't recognize him. He was standing behind me while I was unlocking the door and he was saying that he was looking for my roommate. Then I called for her and after my roommate came to the door I found out it was a guy she was seeing and she even introduced me to him before. I just didn't recognize him because he had facial hair when he didn't before and was also dressed differently. So embarrassing, lol.

http://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=303019
Apparently, yep.

Has anyone else had people get offended that you couldn't recognize them? It makes me feel terrible, becuase then they think they don't matter to me, when that's not the case at all.

I go out of my way to explain that I can't recognize faces. If it's been a really major slip-up, I'll pull out a couple stories of how I couldn't recognize other people's faces. Sometimes, after meeting someone for the first time, I'll warn them in advance that I won't recognize them next time, but I really want to remember them. I do it out of the exact same concern you have-- that people will think they don't matter to me.

Yes. Though it's often not until later..when i see them again in context that i catch up to what the upset was about.
Yep. Dense.


The funny thing is - i Can recognize faces..i took one of those 'famous faces' tests and knew who they were. But i've seen them a Ton (far more than i'd like), and i see them from the safety of my couch.

In the real world, i seem to block out the real world..only noticing things like 'today, everyone's wearing green'..or i will identify someone by their dog whom i immediately recognize.but until i'm very comfortable around someone and have seen them many times, i don't Look at their face in any registering way.

I used to think this was some kind of abuse leftovers, but maybe it's all autism. Are you guys the same, or can you literally not identify a face (e.g. a picture of Elvis' face would be nameless)??

I sometimes use the excuse that i can't see well without my glasses. Which is true...but not why i don't see them.

I have this issue too. I used to work on a team of about 25 people. Three of them were white, the rest black. (Please don't think I'm being racist or whatnot here) Well, a lot of black people don't wear their hair natural but rather wear wigs/weaves and such. They would wear a certain wig for awhile and I would get used to that look, voice, face etc. The next week they could change their hair from going to short to long and it would blow my mind! I literally couldn't recognize them. The voice would sound familiar though so I would talk with them trying to get hints until I could figure it out. I constantly felt lost like I didn't know who was who most of the time simply because I have a hard time recognizing someone if one thing changes about them.

My husband used to have a goatee but shaved it off last year for fun. He wanted to kiss me but I couldn't handle it. I didn't even want him to hug me. He looked so different I felt like I would be cheating!

I took a facial recognition test and scored at least average, but I definitely feel this is a problem for me. Not only do I forget (or fail to recognize) faces, but I almost never remember names, especially if I have only encountered the person briefly, but sometimes even if I know them very well. It is embarrassing.

it is difficult to answer that question because it is almost equal to the question "do you have trouble recognizing people", but i mainly take the hair into major consideration when i assess who i am looking at.

there are only a few generic facial types and if they all sport the same hair style, i can not tell the difference between subsets of that generic face group.

i would never confuse arnold swarzenegger with morgan freeman, but i would confuse morgan freeman with oj simpson and nelson mandela and bill cosby if they all were the subject of the same documentary that i was watching.

plenty of people look similar to each other in summary ways, and unless i am in the predicament of having to deal with multiple faces that all are vaguely similar, i usually have no problem.

once i was in a meeting that was a very important meeting, and i was with the boss and the second in charge, and we were meeting 3 chinese gentlemen who all looked identical as far as i was concerned, and i was introduced to them, and they all had a different name but that did not help me.

at one stage, i was told to give the controller for the powerpoint computer to a mr chong or something, and i had no idea who he was so i just placed it on the desk, however it was too far away from the mr chong fellow to reach without having to get up, and it was seen as arrogance on my part that i did not reach over toward him to place the controller closer to him. whatever. name tags cost a few cents. their bad.

Yes, and I've been often accused of deliberately ignoring people.


I easily recognise the faces of those I know well, and I know every little detail of the faces of those I love. Everybody else I identify faster by other traits, especially the voice, my wife thinks it's very funny how I recognise actors by their voice instead of their face.

Somewhat off topic, I think a lot of people rely very heavily on their sight in detriment to other senses, for many things I seem to rely "abnormally" high on hearing and smell, and even touch when appropriate.

A good drill is to go on a dating site like POF and go to the "who's online" page locally and start click the squares a few times a week. See if you can only open each person's profile page only once. I've found that when people change (or rotate) their main profile photo, I have difficulty recognizing this is the same person as before. I've concluded this is because I use the colors/tones, patterns, and lighting within the picture to identify it, not so much the "person's face". So in the end, it's embarrassing that I've visited a person's profile more than once, but a signal that I have trouble recognizing the same person in "a different light". In the end, it's kind of an advanced game of Guess Who. LOL

Nope. I remember faces really well. However, I can't actually recall their faces from memory. When I see them I'll instantly recognize them, but if asked to describe their features off the top of my head I'll only be able to give a very vague description.

Yes, at least until I get familiar with someone. I didn't even realise it until three or so years ago. I recognise people by context, hairstyle and clothing, all of which have an annoying habit of changing from day to day. I have a particular problem with females when they have similar hair colours and similar styles of make-up. I can get really confused in movies if two characters look the same.

Sadly and frustratingly, it's probably cost me the chance to make friends more than a few times. I've often talked to someone who seems really nice, but I can never recognise them again. It probably comes across as aloof and stuck up to them. I'm going to get into the habit of saying something like: "I have a problem with recognising faces until I've seen someone a few times. If you see me around and I don't recognise you, please don't think I'm ignoring you. If you come up and remind me where I saw you and what we talked about, I'll remember who you are."

That's a good idea.