How do you recognise people you have seen before but maybe only a few times ?

Posted by Houseofsun5@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 22 comments

Again I was in one of those, they know me, but I don't remember or recognise them situations and once they were gone I had to ask someone who in the hell it was. I find mostly people pretty much all look very similar, there are 3 or 4 different face shapes, they are fat or thin and a few skin tones differences. Face shape A, brown hair, thin, white looks the same as everyone else with the same combination. What part of someone do you look at that helps you remember that individual?

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22 Comments

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One_Loquat_3737@reddit

I'm sure it's a thing - ah yes, here's a link: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/face-blindness/ I have it badly enough that I've walked past my own daughter in the street, which is pretty alarming, though fortunately she found it funny.

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ProfessorYaffle1@reddit

Yes, I failed to recognise my sister, although in my defence, she had changed her hairstyle. I often struggle to identify people in photos, even when I know them very well.

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ProfessorYaffle1@reddit

I don't. I have prosopagnosia (faceblindness) to a significant degree. I am sometimes able to recognise people if they have other distinguishing features, such as a distinctive voice or accent. These days, for people I am likely to see more than once I usually explain and let them know I won't be able to recognise them and am not being rude or blanking them, if I don't!

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Plus_Row_3756@reddit

I am the same. Very complicated when I work and a customer asks me for something. If I don't focus on something I can recognise (like a piece of clothing etc) I would never find the customer again Plenty of times I can't remember who asked me something and I hover around awkwardly until the customer approaches me again 🥲 Most people I remember/recognise by their voice and or specific patterns when they speak.

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BigGingerYeti@reddit

I don't even recognise people I do know.

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ImChimeraX@reddit

[https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/face-blindness/](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/face-blindness/)

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Houseofsun5@reddit (OP)

Well I can be thankful I don't have the finding my way around part of the possible additional problems. Being a mobile plant engineer,.finding my way around is quite a chunk of my day to day.

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randomdiyeruk@reddit

Yeah, I'm terrible for this - it used to drive my wife up the wall because I think she thought it was a) Deliberate and b) Contained to, like "her friends" Like, I can remember key people and main people I've worked with. But people I've just known/met casually - I'm atrocious, especially out of context. I think my Mrs realised it wasn't an act when I had a bit of an awkward encounter like /u/AngryBadgerThrowaway - I made small talk, and sort of escaped and it was pretty obvious I couldn't remember him. It drove me up the wall for days, til I found him on my LinkedIn and we'd been in the same office for a year.

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Houseofsun5@reddit (OP)

Meeting a load of people is part of my defence too, mobile plant and excavator repairs and inspections makes for loads of people some days!

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Ok-Amoeba-1190@reddit

I can , better than forgetting their name also !!! 😀

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vipros42@reddit

I'm extremely good at pretending to know who someone is until it becomes apparent in conversation how I am supposed to know them.

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AngryBadgerThrowaway@reddit

I have this problem with almost everyone, regardless of whether I’ve seen them only a few times. I changed jobs a while ago & was subsequently stopped in the carpark by a guy who was talking to me like he knew me. Turned out we’d worked together for a few years at my previous job (different teams, though) & I had no idea who he was. It was like once our association ended, I wiped the file in my brain that contained his face. I have yet to find a way to permanently remember what people look like.

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Houseofsun5@reddit (OP)

Oh yes the wipe recognition from memory happens, I get that problem when I go back to the village I grew up near and bump into people I went to school with. Totally unfair as we have aged 30 odd years !!

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GrimQuim@reddit

Like dogs do, I recognise people by smell of their anus. People tend to remember me too.

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BppnfvbanyOnxre@reddit

Probably the only one who publicly sniff their butts.

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GrimQuim@reddit

I'm glad you added 'publicly'

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dobber72@reddit

I'm the same, I'm terrible with names, faces and remembering people who have names and faces. I've always been that way. I rarely recognise anyone unless I converse with them on a regular basis for a year at minimum. I have neighbours who I've lived near for years and would recognise them in a crowded street but I won't be able to put a name to that face. However, I can remember which trim level Ford Sierra had single front headlights and no grille back in the 1980s. The mind is a truly complex thing.

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BppnfvbanyOnxre@reddit

I struggle. Heck I have enough trouble finding Mrs B if we get separated in the supermarket.

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DameKumquat@reddit

I ask them to remind me of their name, because I can usually remember details related to a name, but I'm hopeless with faces. At work I ask where they're working now and then look them up in the corporate directory (people move teams a lot). Works well except when you get "oh, still CEO..."

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I_am_Relic@reddit

I forget names about 5 seconds after someone has told me. If someone (someone's face) is familiar and they start talking to me, then I usually blag it and hope that i can either place them, or fish for clues in the conversation. Now that I'm older i really have no shame, and I'm happy to say something like "I'm sure that I know you but i don't know from where". Then we both play the game of mentioning places or circumstances in the hopes that it will trigger the appropriate memory 😆

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Sparko_Marco@reddit

I find I'm quite good at recognising people I've seen before, it can be years since I've seen them but I will still recognise them. My problem though is that although I recognise their face I don't remember who they are or where I've seen them before and often people will talk to me and I'll have a conversation with them but I wouldn't have a clue who they were but I know I've seen them before somewhere.

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