Face Blindness Test: Do You Struggle to Recognize Familiar Faces?
Cognition
Take this free Face Blindness Test to explore your facial recognition abilities. Based on authoritative research like the PI20, this assessment helps you understand if your symptoms align with Prosopagnosia.
Have you ever walked past a close friend in the grocery store without realizing it was them? Or perhaps you’ve found yourself at a party, anxiously waiting for someone to speak so you can finally figure out who they are? If you navigate the world relying on hairstyles, gaits, or voices because faces feel like a blur of interchangeable features, you are not "rude" or "forgetful." You might be experiencing a very real cognitive trait.
This Face Blindness Test (based on the principles of the PI20 and other prosopagnosia screening tools) is designed to help you decode these experiences. It offers a compassionate, scientifically grounded mirror to your visual perception, moving you from confusion to clarity.
Living with unrecognized facial processing challenges can be socially exhausting. This assessment helps by validating your hidden struggles and providing a language to explain them.
At its core, this test screens for Prosopagnosia (commonly known as "face blindness"), a condition where the brain struggles to process or recognize faces. While some people acquire this after a brain injury, many have Developmental Prosopagnosia—meaning they were simply born this way.
You might be asking yourself:
This test explores these exact scenarios to determine where you fall on the recognition spectrum.
This assessment is a self-report symptom inventory. It draws on the taxonomy and structure of authoritative instruments like the 20-item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) and the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) concepts. It focuses on subjective daily difficulties rather than objective image testing, making it accessible for online self-reflection.
We don't just ask "can you see faces?" We break it down into two specific behavioral dimensions:
The test consists of 20 questions. It typically takes about 3 to 5 minutes to complete.
You will rate statements on a scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree).
Tip: Answer based on your lifelong patterns, not just how you felt today. Think about how you behave when you meet people unexpectedly, outside of their usual context (e.g., seeing a coworker at the beach).
Your responses are scored cumulatively. We account for "reverse-scored" items (questions where high agreement actually means good face recognition) to ensure accuracy. Your total score is then mapped against clinically established risk bands.
This test is especially helpful if you:
Please consider seeking professional help instead if:
We don't just give you a number. We provide a narrative that explains how your brain likely processes identity. Depending on your score, you will receive one of the following three patterns:
In addition to your type, every result page includes a breakdown of your Strengths, common Pitfalls, and a personalized Action Plan to help you navigate social situations with more confidence.
This test provides a snapshot of your current functioning. It is not a medical diagnosis, but a tool for self-understanding. Use it to advocate for yourself.
Whether you are a "Super Recognizer" or have "Face Blindness," we provide tips. For those with challenges, we suggest strategies like "verbal disclosure" (telling friends about your difficulty) and "anchoring" (consciously memorizing distinctive features like glasses or jewelry).
To ensure the accuracy of our approach, we reference the following authoritative sources on Prosopagnosia:
Please Read Carefully:
This Face Blindness Test is designed for educational and self-exploration purposes only. It is not a diagnostic tool and cannot replace a professional evaluation by a neurologist, neuropsychologist, or vision specialist.
If your difficulty recognizing faces is sudden, severe, or accompanied by other symptoms (such as confusion, headache, or vision loss), please seek emergency medical care immediately. The results provided here indicate patterns and tendencies based on self-reported data, not clinical facts.
You navigate the social world with a visual fluency that allows you to effortlessly recognize and connect with faces.
Your face recognition is generally functional, though you may rely on context and clues more than you realize.
You view the world through a unique lens where faces may feel indistinct, relying on your sharp observational skills to navigate connection.