# "Ask The...":Prosopagnosia **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 7, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375 "2009-12-07T22:33:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/41 "2009-12-09T01:01:15Z")
I got 82%. ---
**Author:** ![horsetech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dec6dc/32.png) [@horsetech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horsetech)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/42 "2009-12-09T01:23:25Z")
I thought I was pretty bad at recognizing faces, and according to those tests I was right. I got 58% on the CGI and 21% on the celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/43 "2009-12-09T02:47:46Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > There was a short-lived medical drama a couple of years ago called _3 lbs_. One of the episodes featured a patient with face blindness. Did you see it? I saw that one. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/44 "2009-12-09T02:58:20Z")
I got 97% on the celebrity test. I didn’t recognize Tony Blair. I got all the rest correct! ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/45 "2009-12-09T03:01:17Z")
Leaffan - I got the same score and missed the same one. I guessed “some killer guy from the news”. I also got a 93 on the regular test. So don’t none of y’all try to rob a bank in front of me! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/46 "2009-12-09T03:21:28Z")
> [@ShelliBean](#): > > Leaffan - I got the same score and missed the same one. I guessed “some killer guy from the news”. I also got a 93 on the regular test. > > So don’t none of y’all try to rob a bank in front of me! Yeah, but… but… we’ll be wearing masks so you can’t see us anyways! So there! ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/47 "2009-12-09T03:29:08Z")
Wear a Tony Blair mask. Problem solved. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/48 "2009-12-09T03:45:44Z")
Does face blindness have any effect on one’s own face? Do you recognize your face in photographs? When you look in the mirror, is it more or less like most other faces? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/49 "2009-12-09T04:04:53Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Apparently this is normal? I’m in the other end; I’ve been known to be able to correctly “place” people I’d seen in the subway or the street a couple times. We hadn’t been introduced, we had never spoken, the situation in which we’d been introduced had them in different clothes/makeup/etc. but I remember faces. I find faces absolutely fascinating, for me it’s difficult not to stare at people because I find their faces so interesting. This thread taught me that’s another of those gifts I’m just so used to that I take them for granted (as well as a source of social embarrassment when I do find myself staring). Re. people saying “hi” that you don’t recognize: I’ve had that happen with people I had never, ever, seen in my life. For example, a woman who’d moved to town while I was in college, I hadn’t been back since she’d moved in, but she saw me coming up the street with a big blue and grey backpack, she knew my mother’s daughter would be arriving from college on that day and about that time and would have a backpack, and I do look like my mother. _She_ had never seen _me_, either! Not even pictures! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/50 "2009-12-09T04:21:22Z")
In the test: I couldn’t remember the names of several of the comedians, but the only people I couldn’t place were Condi and Oprah; Rice looked familiar but I couldn’t place her, Oprah didn’t even look familiar. That pic of Oprah is from what year, by the way? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/51 "2009-12-09T15:25:48Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Does face blindness have any effect on one’s own face? Do you recognize your face in photographs? When you look in the mirror, is it more or less like most other faces? My face does not quite match up to my mental self-image, but I think a lot of people have that. I can certaintly pick myself out of photos. I know when I’ve changed a hairstyle, which is one of my biggest problems with other people. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/52 "2009-12-09T18:06:33Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > My face does not quite match up to my mental self-image, but I think a lot of people have that. I can certaintly pick myself out of photos. I have been known to not recognize myself in a photograph, but not often. There was this one photograph of me standing next to the Arts Lecture Hall at Waterloo with Jo Lee: I realized it was me in the picture by recongizing my walkman on the person… most of the time it’s not like that. ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/53 "2009-12-09T18:36:57Z")
huh, I got 96% on the CGI and 100% on the Celebrity - maybe I _should_ have gone into detective work, like my brother pushes me to. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/54 "2009-12-09T18:40:22Z")
I got a 96% on the face test. I thought I’d do a lot worse Malleus, does it help your recognition if the person has an unusual, but not physical, characteristic? Like if he was weird, or loud, or said something odd? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/55 "2009-12-09T18:44:02Z")
[quote=“Darryl\_Lict, post:17, topic:520375”] Check out this [website](http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/)./QUOTE] Wow that was an interesting test! I got 69/72 (96%) so clearly my problem isn’t recognizing faces, it’s just remembering their #\*$ names!!! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/56 "2009-12-09T19:00:32Z")
Are animated movies easier to watch than filmed ones? Generally the characters are more exaggerated and distinctive… or an animated movie with non-human characters, like A Bug’s Life or something… would those be easier to follow? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/57 "2009-12-09T19:04:09Z")
Is a “spectrum” of prosopagnosia recognized? I used to mistake strangers for, not friends, but casual acquaintances. You can really weird up someone’s day by going, “Hiya Tim!” in front of the dairy counter to some dude whose name is not, nor ever has been, Tim. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/58 "2009-12-09T19:12:55Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Are animated movies easier to watch than filmed ones? Generally the characters are more exaggerated and distinctive… or an animated movie with non-human characters, like A Bug’s Life or something… would those be easier to follow? For me, yes. Thinking about it now, this may be why I liked animated TV shows and movies so much better than live-action ones as a child. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/59 "2009-12-09T19:18:07Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Are animated movies easier to watch than filmed ones? Generally the characters are more exaggerated and distinctive… or an animated movie with non-human characters, like A Bug’s Life or something… would those be easier to follow? Absolutely! I watched the movie _Public Enemies_, and even though it had some well-known actors like Johnny Depp in it, I couldn’t keep track of who was who–the actors all looked alike. I had no idea what was going on. That never happens to me with animated flicks because there’s so much more than just the face to key on (especially since nobody ever seems to change clothes in animated movies, so you can remember the guy with the red pants or the squirrel with the yellow shirt.. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375/60 "2009-12-09T19:26:46Z")
> [@Gary "Wombat" Robson](#): > > I watched the movie Public Enemies, and even though it had some well-known actors like Johnny Depp in it, I couldn’t keep track of who was who–the actors all looked alike. I generally can’t recognize actors from one movie when I see them in another, unless they’re very distinctive-looking. I’m always amazed when other people can do that. > [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > My face does not quite match up to my mental self-image, but I think a lot of people have that. In my mental self-image, I still look like I did when I graduated from college. I think that’s common once you hit a certain age. I can generally pick myself out in a photo. I don’t tell anybody about my face-blindness unless they’re immediate family or best friends level of closeness, or if I’m not using my real name (like here). Otherwise, I’m too paranoid to want to expose a weakness like that. I follow the same rule on health problems- if you’re not immediate family (in some cases, even if you are) or my doctor and you know my real name, it’s on a strict need-to-know basis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-prosopagnosia/520375.md?page=4)