Does looks really matter? Face blindness shows how fundamentally different is (not only) the sexual life of people who do not recognize the faces of others
You may have never heard the term prosopagnosia, but the phrase "face blindness" might already tell you something. And in fact, it also foreshadows what those who suffer from this condition are affected by - they have trouble recognizing the faces of others, to varying degrees. While some can't tell just the differences in the faces of strangers, others can't even distinguish faces from material things. And some with this disorder cannot even recognize their own face! Doctors do not know exactly what causes this condition, but it is believed that prosopagnosia is the result of abnormalities and damage to a specific part of the brain that coordinates the nervous systems controlling facial perception and memory. It can also be a consequence of a stroke, traumatic brain injury or some neurodegenerative diseases, but it is also a genetically determined disease (most often people are born with it). And since this disease cannot be cured, patients can only build various compensatory strategies to recognize themselves, their loved ones, or even colleagues, etc. (e.g. through a distinctive mole, hair style, etc.). However, prosopagnosia can also serve as a rather good demonstration that appearance in life is really not as important as many people believe...
How to live socially if you don't recognize others?
Face blindness is definitely a problem that has significant implications for social life. Moreover, experts say that those who have trouble recognizing the faces of others prefer to isolate themselves from others rather than face countless misunderstandings and the frustration involved. It is not surprising, then, that those who suffer from face blindness also often experience anxiety or develop depression. Of course, social connections on a day-to-day routine level (e.g. meeting a neighbour, colleague, etc.) are one thing, and establishing relationships and sex life is another. There are only a handful of studies on this topic, but one of them suggests that although the perception of the attractiveness of others' faces is not completely impaired in people suffering from prosopagnosia, and even when judging several dozen faces, the research sample was able to perceive "attractiveness", the ability to distinguish between individual (albeit attractive) faces was significantly weaker than in the case of those who did not suffer from face blindness.
That other research on the subject went even further - its conclusion being that prosopagnosia not only prevents those who suffer from it from identifying specific faces, but also limits their ability to perceive the attractiveness of faces. So, as the researchers summarized, people with face blindness rated the attractiveness of beautiful people only slightly better than the attractiveness of people with average faces - and, in addition, they also showed a much higher willingness to continue viewing pictures of people with average faces compared to the control group. Incidentally, one of the women, Katherine, who has struggled with prosopagnosia since birth, describes her own experience. "Faces I've been told are beautiful, models, actors with compact features and perfect symmetry. They all look exactly the same to me. They offer me nothing to latch onto in recognizing them. I don't understand what others see in them," she explains in her "confession".
And what about (sexual) "attraction"?
"When I was growing up, everyone around me said something like 'oh, Johnny Depp, he's so hot'. And I didn't understand at all how someone could look at someone's face and be attracted to that person or even fantasize about that person. Faces have never played a big role for me in choosing who I'm attracted to or intimate with. I pay more attention to demeanor and personality - who is in there, not what their face is like. And I've definitely also been sexually attracted many times to men that others find downright ugly," another woman who struggles with face blindness explained.
Appearance simply isn't important at all to those who can't adequately evaluate those universally beautiful faces. On the contrary. They greatly value various differences, even if others may not find them particularly remarkable. "The faces I fall in love with are distinctive. They have crooked noses, wrinkles, crooked teeth and strange smiles. They're individual. They signal life, life lived. It ' s these faces that attract me and that I appreciate," Katherine says.
Incidentally, Brad Pitt has also spoken publicly about suffering from face blindness (and related issues). This suggests that his choice of partners was not necessarily subject to the fact that these women regularly appear in the world's most attractive people lists. Maybe if Angelina had a crooked nose and some of those proper wrinkles, "Brangelina" wouldn't be a thing of the past today... Ok, of course we're exaggerating, but on the other hand - wouldn't at least the world of dating and the related search for the one/s be a lot easier if we all suffered from face blindness?
