Brad Pitt is one of the most recognized celebrities in the world. But it turns out he’s often unable to recognize others. The Academy Award winning actor opened up recently about his “face blindness,” and why he likes to stay home and avoid social settings due to it.
“Face blindness,” properly called prosopagnosia is a condition marked by the inability to recognize faces. It affects about 2% of the population. The condition is associated with abnormalities or damage to part of the right side of the brain called the fusiform gyrus.
In a recent interview with GQ, Pitt shared his struggles remembering people, even after he’s met them. It’s something that has caused some to speak badly about the “Fight Club” actor for many years. His inability to remember people resulted in a reputation for being aloof and self-absorbed.
He reveals that he’s tried to be honest with people while in social settings as to why he doesn’t remember them — he even asks for help remembering where they’ve met. While this seems like a good idea, the high-profiles actor said he’s offended many people.
“No one believes me!” Pitt said. “People were more offended.”
On the rare occasion that someone actually helps him with his memory, he shares his gratitude, though he claimed that, even then, he still felt a hint of them thinking he’s “egotistical” or “conceited.”
“So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them,” he said.
Developing prosopagnosia usually happens in early childhood and is not caused by injury. It can also develop later in life — though in this case, it is sometimes due to a brain injury, stroke or even Alzheimer’s. Experts believe that the condition may be linked to autism/Asperger’s syndrome.
“In developmental prosopagnosia, there’s no MRI positive. You can’t do an MRI and see there is something wrong with the brain. In strokes and brain injury, of course, you can do that.” said Dr. Salman Azhar, a neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, to Healthline.
If you think you might suffer from prosopagnosia, there are self-tests like the Exposure Based Face Memory Test that can help diagnose prosopagnosia, along with prosopagnosia community Facebook groups for support.
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