Have you ever met a stranger and thought: Don’t I know you from somewhere? Or maybe you have been repeatedly mistaken for someone else? On TikTok the phenomenon is known as “cousin face” – as in, “Wow, you look like one of my cousins” and other things that people with these familiar faces hear.
But is the “cousin face” really rooted in science? Is there a reason why some people might have more recognizable characteristics – even from the perspective of people they’ve never met? Here’s what the experts say.
How our brains recognize faces
Unsurprisingly, “cousin face” is not a formally recognized scientific term and there are no scientifically based, peer-reviewed articles that use it. That said, the concept behind it has proven roots in facial recognition research.
A 2022 Study at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles discovered that when the eyes scan the face, certain cells in the amygdala, a part of the brain that processes social and emotional information, reaches and triggers memory-generating activities. “These cells, appropriately known as ‘face cells,’ appeared to be activated only when people looked at faces,” clinical neuropsychologist Jessica McCarthy tells Yahoo Life. In turn, these cells activate brain waves in the hippocampus, “which is a fundamental part of the brain responsible for processing information and forming memory,” says McCarthy.
Essentially, our brains are simply wired to detect and remember faces – and in turn, perhaps, to look for memory connections in those faces, even when they may be fake. “Sometimes we meet familiar people because they share common characteristics with many others we have seen before,” licensed therapist and psychologist Cheryl Groskopf tells Yahoo Life. “Our brains are tuned to pick up on familiar patterns, which helps us navigate social interactions more easily.”
While the “cousin face” phenomenon is primarily a fun and relatable way to describe those silly “déjà vu” moments with new acquaintances, “it also highlights the complexity of facial recognition processes in our brains,” says Groskopf.
So why do we do this? Because it’s easy. Our brain’s incredible ability to recognize and categorize faces, even when we can’t tell whether we’ve seen them before or not, “likely evolved as a crucial social skill, helping us navigate complex tribal and familial relationships,” the doctor said. and sociologist Natalia Rosado tells Yahoo Life. “It’s a great example of how our brains use shortcuts and patterns to make sense of the world. Our brains are constantly trying to match new information with existing patterns.”
According to Rosado, “cousin face” is feeling a sense of familiarity with unfamiliar faces. “It’s like our brain’s facial recognition system is working overtime!”
Why appearance matters
So, do some people really have a generic-looking “cousin face”? Quite. As much as our brains are really trying hard to find familiarity in faces everywhere, there is also a concept of “average face” in psychology. “Studies have shown that we tend to find faces more attractive when they are closer to the average of all the faces we have seen,” says Rosado. “So a ‘cousin face’ might have the same idea: a face that is familiar because it is somewhat ‘average’ in a comforting way.”
No. Facial blindness or prosopagnosiais a neurological condition in which you it cannot recognize familiar faces, including your own family or sometimes even your own face. “Cousin’s face” is actually the opposite; it’s “seeing familiarity in strangers’ faces,” Groskopf explains.
According to McCarthy, “cousin face” simply describes “a naturally occurring phenomenon at the intersection of facial recognition and memory – and is not considered a disorder.” But there is a related – although more extreme and diagnosable – medical condition called hyperfamiliarity syndrome for faces, or HFF. “HFF syndrome is a relatively rare disorder in which unfamiliar people or faces appear familiar,” says McCarthy.
There are also some people who qualify as “super-recognizers”, meaning they have a unique and genetically predisposed ability to recognize and remember faces.
The lesson
Although the “cousin face” phenomenon is mostly anecdotal, it makes sense in terms of how facial recognition works alongside our memories. It’s also worth noting, says Rosado, that this term’s current popularity on TikTok speaks to our shared human experiences. “It’s validating to discover that something you thought was just a quirk of your own perception is actually a common experience,” she says.
