Do you pride yourself on never forgetting a face, or can you always spot a long–lost friend walking down the street?
If so, you might be a ‘super recogniser’.
Super recognisers are an elite group of people with a rare genetic advantage that gives them a real–life superpower for spotting faces.
Now, scientists have created a test so you can find out if you might have these same rare abilities.
The quiz below is a shortened version of a super recogniser test created by scientists at the University of Greenwich.
All you need to do is carefully look at the faces for five seconds, and then try to pick the same person out of a lineup.
If you score five out of five, it might be a sign that you have what it takes to become a professional super recogniser.
So, how many faces can you spot?
What are super recognisers?
Super recognisers are a group of people whose ability to detect faces vastly exceeds that of the general public.
These rare individuals have the ability to recognise someone from a blurry CCTV image or pick out an adult in a crowd based on a childhood photo.
This is why the Met Police has hired around 140 super recognisers, who were pivotal in tracking down suspects from the 2011 London Summer Riots in ‘Operation Withern’.
They also have a unique ability to detect fake images, making them extremely useful for finding fake IDs, doctored images, or AI-generated deepfakes.
In a recent study, researchers found that super recognisers could spot AI–generated faces 64 per cent of the time after just five minutes of training.
However, scientists believe that you can’t make yourself into a super recogniser; you have to be born with it.
Environmental factors, such as exposure to diversity, do play a role in facial recognition skills, as people from cities tend to perform better than people in small towns.
Would this blurry images be enough for you to spot someone in a crowd? If so, you might be a super recogniser
In this test, you need to pick out the face based on the grainy black–and–white image. Super recognisers will find this much easier than the average person
However, research suggests that being a super recogniser is largely determined by your genes.
Psychologist Professor Josh Davis is the leading expert on super recognisers and head of the Super Recognisers project at the University of Greenwich.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘We know that face recognition ability has a genetic influence from “twin studies”, because identical twins tend to generate identical test scores.’
Scientists aren’t actually sure what makes super recognisers different, as there isn’t any evidence to suggest they have a unique brain structure.
But Professor Davis says that their brains might be ‘hot–wired in a different way to the brains of other people’.
Researchers have found that super recognisers had a big spike in brain activity about 100 milliseconds after seeing a face, well before most people perceive a set of facial features as a whole face.
‘The higher levels of activity in super–recognisers may be associated with greater efficiency at integrating these features, and configurations of features into the whole,’ says Professor Davis.
Could you be a super recogniser?
Super recognisers have a unique ability to find faces, which is why they were used extensively by the Met Police during Operation Withern, to track down suspects from the 2012 London Summer Riots using CCTV footage like this
If you are a super recogniser, you may have already noticed that your ability to spot faces is well above the norm.
‘One common sign is that super recognisers find that they are far better than their friends/family at spotting when B–list and even C–list actors appear in different films and TV shows,’ says Professor Davis.
‘Super recognisers seem to easily spot actors who appear in different historical dramas despite substantial changes in fashion and quite strong make–up.’
Another common sign is that you are able to spot old acquaintances out of the blue, even when decades have passed.
Louise Bruder is a certified super recogniser working for the identity verification firm Yoti, training other super recognisers to spot fraudulent IDs.
Ms Bruder told the Daily Mail she always knew she had a ‘very good memory for faces’ and frequently found herself recognising people she had only met very briefly – often to much confusion and embarrassment when they couldn’t remember her.
And, while working part–time in a local pub, her unique gift made her every underage drinker’s worst nightmare.
‘I remember a group of lads came in, very pleasant, and they all dutifully produced ID’s for the landlord when he asked them,’ says Ms Bruder.
Louise Bruder is a certified super recogniser working for the identity verification firm Yoti, training other super recognisers to spot fraudulent IDs. She says she always knew she had a strong memory for faces
‘I just wasn’t quite happy with that and said, “Do you mind if I take a little look?”.
‘I went through them all and said, “Well, this one’s fake. This one isn’t fake, but is that your brother? You look just like him!”.’
However, it was only when she took the University of Greenwich’s online tests that she realised just how unusual her talent was.
After acing the first short test, Ms Bruder went on to take a more rigorous series of examinations, which ultimately ended with her making a new career as a professional super recogniser.
If you also aced the first test and think that you have what it takes, you can find all the further tests on the Super Recognisers website here.
And if you do have a knack for spotting faces in a crowd, Ms Bruder says you might be surprised to discover you are a super recogniser as well.
She says: ‘It doesn’t cost you anything to do the fun test, and who knows where it will lead?
‘I played a rogue game on my phone on a Friday night. Nine years later, I’m still here.’
Super recognisers are uniquely skilled at spotting AI–generated faces. Can you tell which of these is a fake? Take the test below to find out the answers
How to spot a fake, according to a super recogniser
One of the biggest jobs for a professional super recogniser is searching through potentially suspicious ID photos to check for anyone who might be using a deep fake to hide their identity.
But with AI image–generating tools becoming more sophisticated, even Ms Bruder says it is getting harder to see when someone is using a deep fake to hide their identity.
Luckily, there are a few key signs of AI fakery that make it easier to detect any potential impostors.
Ms Bruder says that one rule she always uses is: ‘If in doubt, have a count.’
AI–generated images will often have the wrong number of fingers, toes, or even teeth.
She adds: ‘Not to make a judgement on someone’s appearance, but if the misalignment of their features looks really out of whack compared to the rest of the image, that would perhaps give us some warning.’
Around the edge of the picture in particular, you might be able to spot random areas of pixilation, extremely wonky ears, or bits of hair that don’t attach to the hairline, all of which are good signs of an AI fake.
