6 Easy Ways to Remember Names and Faces
Everyone would like to be able to remember the names of people we meet, especially people we meet in new social situations. Some of these situations are purely for enjoyment, and others have higher stakes. You’re being interviewed for a new job, for example, and as soon as you’re introduced to your potential supervisor, the name has flown completely out of your consciousness. Unfortunately, you’ll lose the job prospect as quickly as you’ve lost that name. When it comes to meeting people at parties, or even in casual conversation when introduced by a mutual friend, you also will appear to be a social klutz when you see that person again and must flounder (or fake) knowing the new people’s names.
We know it’s bad to forget names of new people, but looking at the flip side, we also know how much it means when we are able to call people by name the next time we see them. Whether it’s five minutes or five years later, that remembered name will make you seem (and feel) like someone who really cares about others. There is hardly a more impressive feat than coming up with the name of someone you met only once or twice.
Some people seem to be born with this ability to associate a face and a name. You may watch them with awe and envy, never dreaming that you could be one of these people too. They are probably also the same people who can watch a TV show or movie and recite not only the names but the previous roles of the actors, from minor characters to leading men and women. With the tips you’ll learn shortly, you’ll be well on your way to becoming one of these face memory champs. Great name memories can be made, if not born.
Interestingly, our ability to distinguish faces is much better than our ability to name those faces. Researchers estimate that we are all “face experts” who can distinguish hundreds, if not thousands, of faces we see over a lifetime. The trick is associating those many, many faces with the names that belong to them.
Before getting to those 6
We know it’s bad to forget names of new people, but looking at the flip side, we also know how much it means when we are able to call people by name the next time we see them. Whether it’s five minutes or five years later, that remembered name will make you seem (and feel) like someone who really cares about others. There is hardly a more impressive feat than coming up with the name of someone you met only once or twice.
Some people seem to be born with this ability to associate a face and a name. You may watch them with awe and envy, never dreaming that you could be one of these people too. They are probably also the same people who can watch a TV show or movie and recite not only the names but the previous roles of the actors, from minor characters to leading men and women. With the tips you’ll learn shortly, you’ll be well on your way to becoming one of these face memory champs. Great name memories can be made, if not born.
Interestingly, our ability to distinguish faces is much better than our ability to name those faces. Researchers estimate that we are all “face experts” who can distinguish hundreds, if not thousands, of faces we see over a lifetime. The trick is associating those many, many faces with the names that belong to them.
Before getting to those 6