The underlying cause is still not entirely clear – it’s a new field, with only around 20 scientific papers studying super-recognisers. Photograph: Alana Holmberg/Oculi for The Guardian Of more than 100,000 people tested in an online tool to unearth the world’s best super-recognisers, Seo ranked in the top 50. “I knew I must have some kind of skill, but I still didn’t think it was anything special, because I just had so many instances like that happen.” Staff were shown grainy, hard-to-decipher CCTV footage of a habitual shoplifter the next time this person entered the shop, Seo instantly recognised them, and alerted the security guard. Once, while working at a part-time job at a clothing store when she was at uni, Seo had cause to show her skill. “But I also knew it’d be really creepy if I said that out loud, so I’d keep it on the down low and just say: ‘Oh, nice to meet you.’” I’d already be so familiar with them and I’d know in my head: ‘Oh, you are that person’s sibling, or you used to date so-and-so,’” she says. “I would start a new class in uni or I would meet people through social gatherings and I would remember visually what kind of photos I’d seen them in. It was only as she got older and started using social media that Seo became self-conscious of her skill. Seo recalls that at university she’d meet people in a new class ‘and I would remember visually what kind of photos I’d seen them in’.
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