Facial blindness affects more than 3% of population, Harvard study finds

BOSTON – A condition called "facial blindness" may be more common than you think.

People with facial blindness or prosopagnosia believe they recognize people they have never met or fail to recognize those they have. 

It can be caused by a brain injury or by genetic or developmental problems. 

As you can imagine, facial blindness can put people in embarrassing situations and impact them both socially and professionally. 

It was thought to affect around 2% of the population. But after studying more than 3,300 individuals, researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered that facial blindness affects more than 3% of the population, or more than 10 million Americans. 

And they found that those affected fall along a continuum, with facial blindness ranging from mild to more severe.

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Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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