You suspect a patient shows false reconnaissance. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would assess for this.

Ask the patient about people around them, noting whether strangers are confidently identified as known people (positive misidentification), or whether genuinely known people are insisted to be strangers (negative misidentification). Establish the extent of the pattern, since it can range from a handful of misidentified individuals in acute states to a pervasive pattern affecting nearly everyone encountered in some chronic presentations. Consider the broader clinical context, since this occurs in organic psychoses as well as acute and chronic schizophrenia. If negative misidentification is present, ask specifically whether it has been elaborated further into a belief that the person is a double or impostor, which would instead point toward the more specific presentation of Capgras syndrome.