Are You a ‘Super-Recognizer’ of Faces?
Are you one of those people who seem to have an uncanny ability to remember and recall faces? You’re not alone, and you could be what Josh P. Davis, psychology professor at the University of Greenwich in England calls a super-recognizer, according to IFLScience.com.
Research regarding super-recognizers goes all the way back to 2009 when a team of neuroscientists from Harvard conducted one of the first studies of super-recognizers; looking at four people who claimed to have an unusually good ability to recognize faces. Since then, any studies focusing on super-recognizers have been exceptionally small, ranging from anywhere between two participants to half a dozen. This most likely has to do with the fact that super recognizers make up “probably less than one percent of the population,” according to Davis.
While the London police department is currently utilizing super recognizers to help identify criminals in often-fuzzy CCTV footage, there is unfortunately no indication that you can train yourself to become a super recognizer – it’s either an ability that you’re born with or you’re not. It’s something Brad Duchaine, associate professor at Dartmouth College who studies cognitive neuroscience, calls “genetic good luck.”
