Have you ever seen someone in public and you swear you know them from somewhere, you just can’t pick where? Are they an old school friend? The guy who delivers bread to your local cafe? You feel like you know them but it would probably be weird if you started a conversation. Well, that’s a glimpse into the life of a small percentage of the population who recognise with freakish accuracy every face they’ve ever seen. People with this extraordinary gift can find themselves in awkward social interactions due to their detailed memories of people they’ve actually never met. Yes, it can look a tad stalker-ish...

 

Yenny Seo is one of these unique people (not a stalker). From a young age, she demonstrated an uncanny ability to remember faces - strangers on the street she had seen weeks ago, extras in movies, every person in her university lectures and people in photos on her social media feed. She even caught a serial shoplifter by recognising his face on CCTV.

 

In 2017, Seo got curious about her skills and stumbled upon the University of New South Wales (UNSW) face test online quiz. Her exceptional performance put her in the top 0.05 per cent of all participants, confirming she was a Super Recogniser. That’s right. Yenny officially has superpowers. And she’s not alone either.

 

SOURCES:

• The super-recognisers of Scotland Yard - New Statesman
• ‘I’d keep it on the down low’: the secret life of a super-recogniser | Science | The Guardian
• Could super recognisers be the latest weapon in the war on terror? 2016 David James Robertson
• Super-Recognisers in the Metropolitan Police
• DJ Robertson et. al. February 2016 Face Recognition by Metropolitan Police Super-Recognisers PLOS ONE 11(2):e0150036 DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0150036
• What is it like to remember all the faces you’ve ever seen? | Psyche Ideas
• QPS Super Recogniser Network helps crack 1,000 cases - Queensland Police News
• It is widely believed that humans are rather good at recognising faces

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