I work with departments all across the company. In the course of regular business, I find myself meeting new faces all the time. It gets especially hard in large meetings with lots of people or at receptions where there is a large crowd with lots of people mingling about. Unfortunately, my ability to remember names is not as strong as my ability to recognize faces. I know that I am not alone in this.
It seems that most of us will run into situations where we find it difficult to recall someone's name. While there are tricks that you can learn, it seems that the most critical thing you can do is to pay attention when you first meet someone. If you are like me, it's easy to get distracted with a thousand thoughts racing through your mind. It seems that remembering names is actually quite taxing mentally.
It doesn't just take a good brain to memorize names. It takes time and attention, neither of which you have in that situation. As each person is listed, we are waiting for the next person's name. This provokes what's known as the next-in-line effect.
The next-in-line effect happens when someone is waiting for their turn to speak during an organized event. Researchers tested it by having people in small, circular groups take turns giving out information, then testing them to see which snippets of information they remembered. Each participant's memory was just fine, right up until they got to the information imparted by the person who talked just before they themselves were "up." Suddenly, they remembered nothing. Yes, they were listening when the person before them was talking. They just weren't paying attention. Their mind was already on the next task.
When we see a group of people coming towards us with their hands out for handshakes, we're in a situation in which we know we'll have to take in a cascade of information, and we try to prepare for it. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. We try to simultaneously greet the person in front of us, and get ready for the next person in line. As it turns out, we can either take in and store information, or get ready for the next grouping of information. Since we try to do two things at once, we fail at both.
Another possible explanation is that we are trying to remember more details about a person. While we may believe the sound of our own name is magical to us, in reality it may not stand out in another person's mind. It may be far easier to remember exotic details about someone than it might be to remember their name.
The second article ends on a witty note:
So the next time you'd like to excuse yourself for forgetting someone's name without offending the person, just say something like, "Oh sorry, I was just overly concerned with telling you my own name to remember yours. But to be fair, your name isn't actually that interesting to me, and besides, it's inconsequential in the grand scheme of things."
Here is a link to the article on the next-in-line effect: The Psychological Effect That Explains Why You Suck at Parties
Here is a link to the end quote: Why Names Are So Easy to Forget - The Atlantic
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