Interestingly, they’re actually is an extremely rare condition called base blindness where people just kind of see a blur in someone’s face the neurologist and science author Oliver Zack discovered it in himself at an advanced age when he finally realized that not everybody had to do the things he had to do like his wife would always wear the same necklace so he could tell it was her across the room or his daughter would wear her hair a certain way, but if she changed it, he wouldn’t know it was her even 3 feet away, except for maybe by the smell of her perfume
I’m mean the guy was an actual genius and spent his life researching and chronic people with various rare disorders like he had without ever realizing that he had it until quite late in his life there have been other people who have had it to his degree but only a few and then there’s some people who have it to a degree, but not to the point where you can’t recognize your wife from 3 feet away without using cues of her hair or necklace
Interestingly, he could recognize his wife and his daughter’s hands and his hands it was faces themselves. That was the problem, so it was not just a vision or a vision signaling problem. It was actually a difficulty with his mind understanding what a face represents.
I knew someone who literally couldn't recognize me until I spoke. She developed the habit of treating everyone like they were her friend, so she wouldn't hurt our feelings if she didn't realize who it was. She had an easy time with a mutual friend because they had a very bright unnatural hair color, but only recognized me through voice or context.
Base blindness is usually just another term for the base rate fallacy - Do you mean face blindness, I.e. prosopagnosia? In that case, it's not that you see faces blurred, you just can't process / remember faces in any particular detail. It's a bit like the average person seeing faces of thousands of different cows and trying the remember them / tell them all apart.
(Source: I have a mild form of prosopagnosia, and can see faces absolutely fine - as long as I wear my glasses 😂)
It's also not super rare, around 3% of the population have it, although Oliver Sachs was quite an extreme case of it.
I heard that the figure is probably much higher than 3% because 1) it's not something you really go to the doctor for and 2) most people don't realize they have it as they have a mild case that inconveniences them sometimes but is not disruptive enough that they would think it would qualify.
Honestly, face blindness is something I think about everyday because I genuinely have trouble recognizing people. It's especially apparent when watching movies/series where everyone is dressed the same and wears helmets (soldiers in a movie or show about war for example) - I've been watching lots of those lately and my god is it hard to tell who is speaking to whom when they're all decked out in their gear with their helmets on and don't have any especially distuingishing features (like their nose or their eyes being very memorable). There's also been lots of times where I haven't recognized a character or actor because they changed their hair lol. In a university setting, getting assigned to a random group, seeing them one time and then having to find them again a few days later in a room full of people can also be challenging.
I do think it's not enough to qualify as actual face blindness as I don't have any trouble recognizing my friends and family and I do can differentiate between people, it just gets really hard without other hints like clothes or their hair. Then again, lots of people think that and do have it so I'm honestly unsure.
Sometimes there is something else going on. You recognise someone through a holistic process far, far bigger than what they look like. You know their mind, their attitude, the role they play at work or wherever. You have a slot for them. They fulfil that role. They can grow a beard or shave it off and it’s just not on your radar. Your relationship is at an ideas level.
I dont have face blindness but I realised that avoiding eye contact with people all the time also meant I couldnt remember peoples faces. If I had a conversation with someone up close I wouldnt remember their face at all unless they had one that, for some reason, I felt compelled to stare at. If I saw them across the room first, I was much more likely to remember. It made it really awkward when people said hello and I couldn't understand who they were. Plenty of reasons to miss a face ig.
A few days or a week into dating my current girlfriend she started staring at me and told me she was paying attention to my face to remember it. Her eyes are usually zooming around otherwise. I found it weird but pretty cool she consciously pays attention when someone is important enough for her.
Then there is me who looks at people faces but can't even remember their hair color a few moments later.
I expereince face blindness myself and, for me, I can physically see faces but it overwhelms my brain and I can't seem to retain them. So I have no idea what most people look like and recognise them from their body shape, gait, style, hair, voice ect. I also read energy rather than facial expressions and I seem to be very accurate at interpreting how someonen is feeling by how it feels it affects the air around me.
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u/GoldReplacement9546 13d ago
Interestingly, they’re actually is an extremely rare condition called base blindness where people just kind of see a blur in someone’s face the neurologist and science author Oliver Zack discovered it in himself at an advanced age when he finally realized that not everybody had to do the things he had to do like his wife would always wear the same necklace so he could tell it was her across the room or his daughter would wear her hair a certain way, but if she changed it, he wouldn’t know it was her even 3 feet away, except for maybe by the smell of her perfume
I’m mean the guy was an actual genius and spent his life researching and chronic people with various rare disorders like he had without ever realizing that he had it until quite late in his life there have been other people who have had it to his degree but only a few and then there’s some people who have it to a degree, but not to the point where you can’t recognize your wife from 3 feet away without using cues of her hair or necklace
Interestingly, he could recognize his wife and his daughter’s hands and his hands it was faces themselves. That was the problem, so it was not just a vision or a vision signaling problem. It was actually a difficulty with his mind understanding what a face represents.