When it comes to solving crimes, security cameras may not be enough for a successful outcome. It also takes a superhuman ability to instantly recognize faces in tapes of poor quality. Bright Side invites you to learn more about this amazing ability and to find out if you have it.
Scientists still can’t give a detailed explanation of how the ability to recognize faces works and why some people have it and others don’t. If you have experience in recognizing people out of context and you can easily recognize someone who’s having trouble recognizing you, it means you may be one of those "super-recognizers."
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It’s a scientifically proven fact that the part of our brain that recognizes faces is also responsible for processing colors and telling them apart. Abnormalities in this part of the brain are associated with the inability to recognize faces and why we mix them up. Psychologists are very much intrigued by the powers of super-recognizers because faces provide more social clues than just identity and are related to how the individual sees and understands the world.
Researchers state that when it comes to identifying things that are not faces, such as flowers or chairs, super-recognizers show the same results as the average person does. This observation suggests that our brain processes facial identity on a whole other level. Studies also show that we all process faces the same way: as a holistic unit, rather than as a collection of individual characteristics.
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Visit the page of Greenwich University to find out if you really are a super-recognizer. The test is quite simple. Just look at a picture for a few seconds, and then identify the face you’ve seen in a series of photos. If you get more than 10 points out of 14, you’re a super-recognizer! Take this test to find out if you really have an outstanding ability to recognize faces.
Preview photo credit Depositphotos Olly18 Based on materials from BBC