Talk:Prosopagnosia

Renaming to 'Face blindness'
I notice the article has been renamed from prosopagnosia to face blindness. Although New Scientist may use the term, it is not a widely used and is inaccurate.

e.g. compare PubMed searches for face blindness (one hit) and prosopagnosia (353 hits).

Even Google has almost twice as many hits for prosopagnosia as face blindness.

Furthermore, people with prosopagnosia are not typically 'face blind' (i.e. they see faces, but they are either distorted or indistinct).

I propose renaming the article back to prosopagnosia, although please voice your objections below.

- Vaughan 09:59, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Face blind", like "tone deaf" is a useful metaphor rather than a literal description. "Prosopagnosia" is a clumsy neoGreek construction: "concerning eyes not knowing". Bill at http://www.choisser.com/faceblind/ uses the term for himself: "I can see faces. I just can't tell them apart." If you don't want a Greek or Latin lexical construction, you could use Old English: "face mingler/mingling", but "face blind" is short and lucid. The condition of being able to see everything other than faces doesn't seem to exist, so there isn't opportunity for confusion. Bob Marsden 24.06.05 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.100.130.201 (talk • contribs) 06:46, 24 June 2005 (UTC).


 * That may be true, but as I pointed out above, the term 'face blind' is rarely used in comparison to 'prosopagnosia', which seems a good justification for naming the article as it is. - Vaughan 07:18, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

As someone with prosopagnosia, I have to say I *hate* the term "face blind". WMMartin 17:28, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree that the term should be Prosopagnosia. It is a medical term that describes the condition. Prosopagnosia is a condition you have. Face blind is something you are. I am not face blind. More of us with Prosopagnosia are beginning to use the term, Prosopagnosia, as awareness becomes more common.WendSong 06:07, 15 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Just make a redirect, jeeze. I looked up Face Blindness because it was called that on a news report, but had to google for the "proper" name. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by WtW-Suzaku (talk • contribs).


 * Then at least change what it says in the opening paragraph, more commonly known as face blindness: in Wikipedia, whatever something (or someone) is more commonly known as, ought to be the title of the article
 * Nuttyskin (talk) 02:52, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Done. Dan Bloch (talk) 03:49, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Anecdotal Evidence about Prosopagnosia in Gay Men
I read recently that there was some evidence that gay men are proportionately more likely to have prosopagnosia than straight men, but I can't remember the source ( so it's not just faces I can't remember :-)  ). Accordingly, I've put this point in the article as "anecdotal"... If anyone has the reference, I hope they'll add it. Thanks in advance. WMMartin 17:36, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps that should read "Anecdotal Evidence about Homosexuality in Prosopagnosics". As a prosopagnosic who identified as bigendered/bisexual before discovering prosopagnosia, I see face blindness as a potential precursor to homosexuality rather than the other way around. So, the more interesting study for me would be to ask prosopagnosics about their sexual orientation and gender identity.Research at Harvard now indicates that prosopagnosia is less rare than thought, so a large enough sample to confirm or deny a link seems within reach. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by User 68.49.102.74 (talk • contribs) 01:36, 15 June 2006 (UTC).


 * To contribute to this original research: I am gay and I also have it. A.Z. 01:15, 16 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I would also like to contribute, but as your first volunteer for the control group. I am not gay and I do not have it. --70.59.146.117 (talk) 08:51, 16 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I am not gay and I do not have it. We're making slow but steady progress here. 81.174.157.213 (talk) 02:49, 21 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm not gay and I think I have it... looks like the progress isn't so clear after all.King Klear (talk) 13:32, 27 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm hetero and have it, as have 3 more member of my family, who are all hetero as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.186.51 (talk) 04:17, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I am a bisexual man (cis), and I do not have it. Furthermore, I have three brothers, one of whom is a gay man, and none of them have it, either. Nuttyskin (talk) 02:56, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Seminal?
I appreciate that it was the first book written on the topic by a prosopagnostic; but just being the first doesn't make it seminal. Because the article fails to establish the book's influence, and there is only a single mention of Choisser in the prose, I've removed "seminal" from the EL link to the book – reasoning against WP:FLOWERY. Little pob (talk) 13:42, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Anne Atkins
Anne Atkins said on Thought for the Day once that she has prosopagnosia. She could be added to the list of "Notable people with prosopagnosia". Rollo August (talk) 08:57, 26 February 2021 (UTC)
 * If her article mentions it and provides a valid source, yes. - Munmula (talk), second account of  Alumnum 00:26, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Short description
The short description was changed from "Cognitive disorder of face perception" to "Face blindness (face perception disorder)". I reverted as the WP:HOWTOSD guideline gives this rule of thumb:

However, I am in agreement that the original might be too technical. Is something like more descriptive to a lay audience? Little pob (talk) 13:05, 4 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Face blindness was added to the s.d. because that term redirects to the article. Since the s.d. is displayed under the article title in the search results (at least in the WP app), having it there lets the user know they have the correct article. How about "Disorder of face perception ("face blindness")"? Blainster (talk) 21:27, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure that short descriptions are intended to be used to list synonyms that redirect to a page. I'll post over at the short description template's talk page to see if an expert opinion can drop by and confirm one way or another. Little pob (talk) 13:00, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
 * As the person who wrote the "is/was..." text above, I am obviously biased, but the SD is not a place to define or provide a synonym of the article title. It is intended primarily to explain what type of thing the article describes, in order to disambiguate the title from similarly named articles. For example, if there were a notable album called Prosopagnosia, its article would have an SD of "2021 album by Foo". Someone searching for "Prosopagnosia" would see "2021 album by Foo" under one article title and "Disorder of face perception" under the other article title. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:23, 5 January 2022 (UTC)