The Average Person Can Recognize About 5,000 Different Faces
Next time you see someone you’ve met a few times, but they introduce themselves to you because they CLEARLY don’t remember YOU . . . you should probably be even MORE offended than you usually are.
Because it turns out all of us can remember a massive number of other people’s faces . . . so doesn’t yours deserve to make the cut?
A new study out of the University of York in England found the average person recognizes about 5,000 different faces. That includes friends, family members, coworkers, and celebrities.
Now . . . there are some people who know way fewer. About 2% of the population have “face blindness” where they recognize 1,000 faces or less. But that’s pretty rare.
It may SEEM like 5,000 faces is overkill . . . especially since ancient humans lived in small groups.
But the researchers say the fact that our brains have such a high capacity for faces is a sign of just how important it is for humans to be social . . . and how crucial it is for us to survive.
