Dr James Dunn
Helping people recognise faces, spot deception, and make better decisions when it matters most.
We all rely on recognising faces and remembering events — but these skills can fail when it matters most. I study why that happens, and how we can help people make better decisions in real-world situations.
500,000+
People have completed our face tests
30+
Media appearances
$2M+
Research funding
Why this matters
Getting a face wrong isn’t just a small mistake — it can mean misidentifying someone in a police investigation, trusting a fake identity online, or misremembering a critical event. These errors happen more often than people realise.
My research focuses on understanding why these mistakes occur and how we can reduce them — by improving training, supporting better decisions, and designing tools that help people get it right in high-stakes situations.
What I work on
Research in action
Media & appearances
Featured coverage
Try the research
Are you a super-recogniser?
Try our free online test to see if you are in the top 2% worldwide
UNSW Face Test — used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to measure face recognition ability.
Can you spot AI-fake faces?
Test your ability to detect AI-generated faces and see how easily people can be misled by this new technology.
Topics I comment on
Enquiries: j.d.dunn@unsw.edu.au