11 Reasons Why Your Brain Is A Total Dick

You're mingling at a party and you spot a work colleague making their way over to you. You see this guy every day, you've signed his birthday card, you've probably even been for drinks and you definitely know his name. However, the moment comes when you have to introduce him to your companion and ... Nope. Blank. Time to panic.

This particular social faux pas occurs for a couple of reasons (not that this makes it any less cripplingly humiliating).

The main problem is that, unlike almost anything else, a person's name is so wholly unrelated to anything else about them, so that your brain has serious difficulty in anchoring it to them.

You might have a couple of clues such as gender and age, but that's about it - names are just too abstract to hold on to.

Even when you definitely know someone's name, even if they're a close friend, your brain can simply just struggle to retrieve it in time. Introductions are always a cause for some anxiety in most people (unless you've had a lot of practice). This coupled with the often rushed nature of a surprise meeting or a quick introduction can cause your brain to simply jam. 

It's the same thing that's behind stage fright; an actor can have committed every line to memory, but when the pressure is on, the brain is just too busy trying to adjust to be able to recall them.