The ability to recognize faces can be inherited, according to a King's University London study. The researchers said that about 60 percent of the distinct human skill is heritable.
Researchers said that people who are good at recognising objects like cars are not essentially good at recognising faces. About 65 percent of the ability to recognise objects was due to genetics.
"Genes are a significant influence because it's more than 50 per cent. It means, on average, having a parent or both parents who are good at recognising faces increases the odds that you will be," said Researcher Nicholas Shakeshaft, Daily Mail UK reports.
For the study, about 1000 pairs of twins born between 1994 and 1996 completed a series of psychological tests that analyzed their ability to identify objects (in this case cars) and faces. They also completed another test that measured their social intelligence (the ability to identify emotions from others' faces and behaviour).
The researchers found that an ability to recognise faces exists separately in humans that are totally different from the trait used in recognising objects in general. The researchers also found that people who recognized faces better were more likely to have enhanced social intelligence.
The analysis also showed that people who were good at recognizing faces tended to have better social intelligence, but that there was no co-relation between being good at recognising cars and social intelligence.
"Our analyses suggest that face-processing ability is about 60 per cent heritable. The figure for recognising objects is a little higher at around 65 per cent," Researcher Kerry Schofield said in a press release.
