Humans are highly tuned to faces, because our faces indicate who we are: they provide the primary visual means by which people can be identified, and for distinguishing one person from another. In everyday life, we identify faces regularly and it seems that we can do so with great ease. Consequently, one might assume this to be a straightforward and accurate task. We are certainly very good at recognizing the faces of people we know, such as those belonging to colleagues, friends, and family. Contrary to the identification of familiar people, however, we are poor at identifying the faces of unfamiliar people, whom we have never met before, despite the fact that important tasks depend on this. Passport control at airports, for example, depends on the identification of people who are not known to the observer, by comparing their faces to photo-identity documents. And police investigations frequently require the comparison of footage of a target person with the faces of suspects to make an identification. In these applied settings, these identification tasks are referred to as facial comparison and are utilized widely. In psychology, a similar identification task is known as forensic or unfamiliar face matching, because it requires the comparison of faces to decide whether their identities match or mismatch. This task has been the subject of intense study in recent years. This book aims to provide an overview of what is currently known about facial comparison and face matching, by bringing together the knowledge of experts from cognitive and forensic psychology, law, border security, and the police. Book jacket.
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