Is it normal to forget people's faces?

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12 Comments

So everytime I try to remember someone's face I just can't. I mean I get impressions of things like hair-color and the like but besides that I can't remember anything else. It's not just acquaintances it's family members that I see everyday of my life. Also I don't see resembleces like other people do (I.e. "oh he has his mother's eyes", or "they definitely look like sisters")

Is it normal to do this or do I have some kind of facial recognition disorder?

Voting Results
60% Normal
Based on 70 votes (42 yes)
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Comments ( 12 )
  • Thatguy777
    12 years ago

    I can forget names, but I always remember faces.

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  • underwhere
    13 years ago

    About 2% of the population has some difficulties with facial recognition. The scientific term for this is prosopagnosia. It turns out that different people who have prosopagnosia have it to varying degrees of severity. Check out http://www.faceblind.org for information and a bunch of links.

    So to answer the question, yes it is normal for a subset of the population.

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  • Painful1
    13 years ago

    Though I'm horrible at names.

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  • Painful1
    13 years ago

    I'm the opposite! I can't ever forget lots of faces.

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  • [Old Memory]
    13 years ago

    I am the same!!

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  • soccernerd12
    13 years ago

    Some ppl just dont have facial recognition software in their brains.

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  • HSVWHO
    13 years ago

    Me three!!!

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  • tori
    13 years ago

    I saw a news show about this. A man couldn't recognize his family or anyone else. He went by their voices. He was outside in his backyard. His son had friends over. His dad asked the crowd which one was his son. Sad really. I hope you really dont have that. Maybe it's something else. Good luck to you.

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    • Boggled
      13 years ago

      I don't believe I have this because I recognize people when I see them it's just when I try to remember exactly what they look like later, I can't recall facial features like nose size or mouth shape ect...

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  • JJmanz
    13 years ago

    It's normal because a human's brain can only hold about 150 friends, family, or random people's name and face.

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    • NormalIsOverratedBeANinja
      11 years ago

      Actually that's not true. 150 is the maximum number of close friends you can keep track of. Your brain can remember hundreds of faces, and they will often appear in your dreams because the brain can't create new faces. But most of them will not be in your conscious memory.

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  • DcMithra
    13 years ago

    Me too!! I think we just have bad memories LOL

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