kosandeffect

My wife also has it and it's led to some amusing situations. One time she almost picked up the wrong kid from school when she went in to get our oldest. Just thought "Those aren't the clothes I sent kiddo to school in he must have had to change into some spare clothes" until our son recognized her and was like "Mom I'm over here." He was also the only white kid in his 6-1-1 class. She was mortified at the time but was laughing her ass off by the time she was relaying the story to me.

Another time while we didn't have a car we both ended up on the bus route home at around the same time. She was about a block behind me for the 4-5 blocks we had to walk from the main downtown area that we connect to the other buses to the stop for the bus route that actually takes us home. She thought that it was me a little but didn't trust herself enough to try to get my attention because what if it was just some random person with the same haircut wearing the same clothes and carrying the same bag I was when I left that morning (Her exact words)? The only reason she recognized me when I finally got to the stop and turned to the side to wait for the bus was she finally saw the distinctive feature she recognizes me by. The "perfect slope of my nose" as she calls it.

On the whole? No. She can still see oh that's a black guy or that's a Hispanic guy etc. On an individual level though in a sense kinda. She recognizes people by distinctive features mostly. For me my big distinctive feature for her is the slope of my nose. So if she saw someone with a similar build and hairstyle that had a similar nose to me she might mistake them for me even if they were like Hispanic even though I'm about as pasty white as you can get. That difference in skin color might get handwaved away as "oh the light in here must be making them look a little darker than usual"

That's basically what happened to her with kiddo that day. She saw kid with a buzz cut and big ears and brain was like "It checks the boxes, SEND IT!"

That's cute and hilarious. My wife also has prosopagnosia and she relies on distinctive features to recognize people. Luckily for me that feature is my nose so even though I don't look like me when I shave it doesn't throw her as bad. Though she does say I don't look like me.

Our funny story with it is the time she almost took the wrong kid home from school. He was in a 6-1-1 at the time so there were only a few other kids in the class and he was the only white boy and she still managed to mistake him for another boy in his class. Just thought "Oh kiddo just have had to change into spare clothes" and would have just walked out the door with him had kiddo himself not recognized her and called out asking her what she was doing. She was mortified at the time but laughed her ass off at it by the time she was relaying the story to me.

We'll be married 5 years in July.