New acquaintances resembling people you trust

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whiterat
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10 Oct 2011, 4:55 am

It's interesting, I tend to feel more relaxed with strangers or new acquaintances I trust. Does that have anything to do with face blindness?



ToughDiamond
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10 Oct 2011, 6:37 am

Sometimes a new person will remind me of a person I felt more familiar with and friendly towards, and it can make me feel more at ease than I otherwise would with a stranger. But I have to be careful if it's a woman who reminds me of an ex-sexal partner. I might do or say something really untoward....it's not happened yet, but it so easily could, sometimes.

I suppose not fully appreciating who I'm with could be taken as an insult, because if I react well to them them they don't know if its really because of them or not. So I keep quiet about it and try to remember that it's not really the same person. Once I get to know them better, their real persona soon replaces the false one anyway.



Burnbridge
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10 Oct 2011, 6:44 am

I am bothered by people who closely resemble people I know.

It's very confusing for me to keep the two people distinct.

Besides, the new person could be an evil Doppelganger, trying to usurp and replace my friend. ;)



whiterat
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10 Oct 2011, 8:20 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
But I have to be careful if it's a woman who reminds me of an ex-sexal partner. I might do or say something really untoward....it's not happened yet, but it so easily could, sometimes.
I kind of get you. I am female, so on the bus I do not sit next to leery-looking men.

I have not gotten into any trouble so far by following this instinct. My ex-boss is an exception. She looks a lot like my grandmother, she seemed very understanding at first, but she turned out to be a nightmare boss.



abc123
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10 Oct 2011, 8:29 am

I can be more sympathetic to people who resemble people I like.



ToughDiamond
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10 Oct 2011, 9:20 am

whiterat wrote:
ToughDiamond wrote:
But I have to be careful if it's a woman who reminds me of an ex-sexal partner. I might do or say something really untoward....it's not happened yet, but it so easily could, sometimes.
I kind of get you. I am female, so on the bus I do not sit next to leery-looking men.

One of my (Aspie?) friends actually grabbed hold of a lady he mistakenly thought he knew....scared the living daylights out of her. My, was he embarrassed. :oops: But it coud have happened to anybody, she did look a lot like his friend.
Quote:
I have not gotten into any trouble so far by following this instinct. My ex-boss is an exception. She looks a lot like my grandmother, she seemed very understanding at first, but she turned out to be a nightmare boss.

I find it quite scary when I feel falsely safe with somebody like that and then I find out I'm not safe.

But how far does it go? Seems to me that we mostly wouldn't be completely fooled by a resemblance, that it's just a feeling we get, rather than a belief that completely takes us over. I know another suspected Aspie who really does blur me with a couple of other people, and seems to fall hook line and sinker for the delusion. Is it purely an Aspie thing, or are there other mental conditions that cause such a profound confusion of other people's identities?



Ellytoad
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10 Oct 2011, 12:44 pm

I'm so good at differentiating facial features that I wouldn't have a problem with associations.
That doesn't quite apply to, say, actors and their characters. I have a strong infatuation with one sci-fi movie character, and only recently got over the trepidation about the fact that I was lusting after the actual actor's body. I had to give the makeup artist more credit than that.



Ai_Ling
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11 Oct 2011, 3:10 am

I think thats natural because if the stranger or acquaintance reminds you of someone you trust, you've likely branded those people under "trustful" people. I'm more likely to want to get to know strangers who remind me of friends. And less wanting to get to know strangers who remind me of people whom I've had bad experiences with. And I dont think it has anything to do with prosopagnosia. I think a lot of people are like that.