Around 2% of the general population are born with developmental prosopagnosia (so-called 'face blindness'); a condition characterised by difficulties recognising faces. People with developmental prosopagnosia often use non-face cues to recognise others, such as their hairstyle, clothes, voice, or distinctive features. Sometimes individuals are unaware they have the condition, instead believing they have 'bad memory for faces'. In fact, prosopagnosia is entirely unrelated to intelligence or broader memory ability. While some prosopagnosics experience difficulties only with face recognition, others also appear to have difficulties interpreting facial expressions. In some cases, perceptual difficulties extend to non-face objects, such as cars and bicycles.

 

If you think you might have prosopagnosia, you can complete the PI20 questionnaire, a validated measure of prosopagnosia severity.