Remembering Faces

Typically, women are better than men at remembering faces. An article by Daniel Stone “Face-to-Face” in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic Magazine pointed out a potential reason for this based on research by Kinesiologist Jennifer Heisz. Heisz tracked the way men and women moved their eyes as they scanned pictures of faces. When looking at a face, both genders started at the center of the face and looked at the same features—eyes, nose, mouth—but women made more eye movements between the features (17 eye movements in 5 seconds compared to 10 eye movements in 5 seconds for men). According to Heisz, more frequent scanning generates a more vivid picture in your mind. This reminded me that adult males typically spend less time looking directly at the faces of others . . . However, knowing this, a man could conceivably choose to spend an additional 7 seconds or so to perform more scanning movements and perhaps do better at remembering faces.

Stone, Daniel. P 27, National Geographic, February 2014. Washington DC:National Geographic Society.