What Does Reading Facial Expressions Really Mean?

[Judge]

I don't know what definition you're using...

That's kind of my point. Pick one. Apparently they vary. Not much point in arguing semantics under such circumstances.

Why do you keep going back to the criminal court of law? I'm so eager to drop this but you keep completely ignoring what I've said. I just said this should NEVER be applied in court.

Outside of law enforcement, intelligence and our legal system I see only rather limited, positive and practical uses for accurately determining facial expressions that don't result in punitive responses. And let's face it, in this society technology gets abused VERY easily.

You see the science. I'm just looking a little further...

 

[Jimmy Rhys]

For me it is less the facial expressions and more speech based. When someone quiets down and starts to tend to themselves as long as we are in the same room I wonder if it is me or something I said. Their lack of continuos attention causes me to loose that connection of emotion. At that point I become very uncomfortable and often ask them "are you okay?" or "did I say something wrong?" it usually drives people to the point if "dude I'm fine why do you keeps asking?!"…

 

[LittleFiddle05]

For me it is less the facial expressions and more speech based. When someone quiets down and starts to tend to themselves as long as we are in the same room I wonder if it is me or something I said. Their lack of continuos attention causes me to loose that connection of emotion. At that point I become very uncomfortable and often ask them "are you okay?" or "did I say something wrong?" it usually drives people to the point if "dude I'm fine why do you keeps asking?!"…

I can relate to this far too well - although, worse, I tend to ask "What are you thinking?" which someone recently told me is a very weird and invasive question. I thought it was just making it open what I was wondering, but I guess most people would never be so straightforward about that...

 

[Judge]

It's always a disconcerting process to me as well. Leaving me wondering, "What was that all about?" And never really getting an answer. Which frankly is even more perplexing.

 

[Jimmy Rhys]

I can relate to this far too well - although, worse, I tend to ask "What are you thinking?" which someone recently told me is a very weird and invasive question. I thought it was just making it open what I was wondering, but I guess most people would never be so straightforward about that...

I agree with that completely, I've asked that a few times. I usually get a negative response or "I don't know" and I just have to follow up with, "Well you have to be thinking about something. Did I say something wrong?" I've made my roommate pretty angry with that a few times, but I wish he knew I am only asking because I care and don't want to upset him. I don't really know how to react in social situations like that.

 

[LittleFiddle05]

I agree with that completely, I've asked that a few times. I usually get a negative response or "I don't know" and I just have to follow up with, "Well you have to be thinking about something. Did I say something wrong?" I've made my roommate pretty angry with that a few times, but I wish he knew I am only asking because I care and don't want to upset him. I don't really know how to react in social situations like that.

I've found I can generally explain pretty well if people respond poorly. I figure it's better to be too open about my concerns than to come across as annoying because people don't understand them. Even before my diagnosis, I figured out that if a silence bothered me I could literally just say "You got quiet, and I don't know why. Did I say something I shouldn't have, or are you just thinking?" which turned out to be a better segue for "what are you thinking" and people came to understand that I was asking because I didn't know how to interpret the silence, not because I needed entertainment. Now sometimes I'll outright say to someone "Just so you know, I don't always know how to interpret things. If I ask a question that seems odd, I'm probably just worried that I may be missing something important. Please don't hesitate to be straightforward with me, I'll never take offense at honesty and if I know you'll be open when I do say something wrong, then I'll be less worried if things are less clear to me. Also, I tend to babble to fill silences, please honestly do not hesitate to tell me to be quiet for a bit." So far, it works pretty well. Even if I don't click with people, I also don't seem to annoy them (from what I can tell, and I think I'm pretty good at picking up on annoyance at this point), and the friends I do make (once in rare while) end up very close friends because they're okay with my quirks from the beginning, and they understand why I do the things I do. It works out pretty well overall, in my opinion

 

[Jimmy Rhys]

I've found I can generally explain pretty well if people respond poorly. I figure it's better to be too open about my concerns than to come across as annoying because people don't understand them. Even before my diagnosis, I figured out that if a silence bothered me I could literally just say "You got quiet, and I don't know why. Did I say something I shouldn't have, or are you just thinking?" which turned out to be a better segue for "what are you thinking" and people came to understand that I was asking because I didn't know how to interpret the silence, not because I needed entertainment. Now sometimes I'll outright say to someone "Just so you know, I don't always know how to interpret things. If I ask a question that seems odd, I'm probably just worried that I may be missing something important. Please don't hesitate to be straightforward with me, I'll never take offense at honesty and if I know you'll be open when I do say something wrong, then I'll be less worried if things are less clear to me. Also, I tend to babble to fill silences, please honestly do not hesitate to tell me to be quiet for a bit." So far, it works pretty well. Even if I don't click with people, I also don't seem to annoy them (from what I can tell, and I think I'm pretty good at picking up on annoyance at this point), and the friends I do make (once in rare while) end up very close friends because they're okay with my quirks from the beginning, and they understand why I do the things I do. It works out pretty well overall, in my opinion

I know how that is! I rarely come across someone who is considerate of my quirks. The people who don't care about them more often then not become pretty good friends of mine. Also depending on who I am talking too I will point out (like you said) that I don't always pickup on social cues and too feel free to be very blunt with me if I do something wrong because honestly I just want to know so I can fix the issue. I do that especially at work if I am dealing with a new manager. They tend to be very understanding but it takes them awhile before they realize how serious I was about it. I like your way of dealing with personal situations with silent friends, I have never been able to find a suitable sentence to use in those situations I think I will use that.

 

[LittleFiddle05]

Also depending on who I am talking too I will point out (like you said) that I don't always pickup on social cues and too feel free to be very blunt with me if I do something wrong because honestly I just want to know so I can fix the issue. I do that especially at work if I am dealing with a new manager. They tend to be very understanding but it takes them awhile before they realize how serious I was about it.

I admire your courage in mentioning it to managers! I haven't told any of my managers (I have two jobs this summer, plus a volunteer position, so that's a lot of people to not tell...) that I'm an Aspie, or any of the traits I have that may make certain things harder for me. I'm lucky in that I can come across as very normal (or at least, I think I do...), it just is much more exhausting. I didn't think it would be a problem in the housekeeping job because I don't have to deal with people (my other job is waitressing, which is much more taxing socially), but turns out that in housekeeping my tendency to get lost in what I'm doing and make sure I do everything exactly right isn't exactly a good thing... other girls have figured out how to BS so that the room LOOKS clean (skipping the vacuum if the rug looks passable, not changing the pillowcases if the same family will be using that bed another night...) so they take less time per room, while I do everything right and put 100% focus into each task, and therefore seem like a slow worker... but I don't dare mention that I have certain traits that make it difficult for me to work fast enough, so I end up with daily lectures about speed and considerable anger from that manager. If I knew a good way to explain to them I might, but as is I suspect they'd be more likely to underestimate my abilities or overestimate my setbacks, either resulting in them giving me fewer hours or not wanting me back in future. I'd rather deal with their frustration than risk them not taking me back next school vacation...

 

[Jimmy Rhys]

I admire your courage in mentioning it to managers! I haven't told any of my managers (I have two jobs this summer, plus a volunteer position, so that's a lot of people to not tell...) that I'm an Aspie, or any of the traits I have that may make certain things harder for me. I'm lucky in that I can come across as very normal (or at least, I think I do...), it just is much more exhausting. I didn't think it would be a problem in the housekeeping job because I don't have to deal with people (my other job is waitressing, which is much more taxing socially), but turns out that in housekeeping my tendency to get lost in what I'm doing and make sure I do everything exactly right isn't exactly a good thing... other girls have figured out how to BS so that the room LOOKS clean (skipping the vacuum if the rug looks passable, not changing the pillowcases if the same family will be using that bed another night...) so they take less time per room, while I do everything right and put 100% focus into each task, and therefore seem like a slow worker... but I don't dare mention that I have certain traits that make it difficult for me to work fast enough, so I end up with daily lectures about speed and considerable anger from that manager. If I knew a good way to explain to them I might, but as is I suspect they'd be more likely to underestimate my abilities or overestimate my setbacks, either resulting in them giving me fewer hours or not wanting me back in future. I'd rather deal with their frustration than risk them not taking me back next school vacation...

I work as a photo technician and I put %100 of focus and carefully process everything I do. My film is always done right and I maintenance the machines as best as I can. I have missed opportunities such as become the head photo tech with full time hours and higher pay to someone who skips out on tasks faking things to make them "look" good and so they seem to be quick and efficient at tasks where I face the store %100 and clean everything the way it is supposed to be. I get complaints from managers and other staff for being "slow" it is not fair that I have a moral obligation to do things the proper way, the way corporate expects things to be done and yet I am the one who loses hours and pay for simply being honest and supplying better quality labor. I make $7.50/hr to multitask hundreds of tasks a day.

 

[Ylva]

Facial expressions is one of the reasons I initially ruled out having Asperger's Disorder when I learned about it 4.5 years ago.

I have some trouble here and there understanding sarcasm and did have quite some difficulty with idioms growing up. For example, I only learned what "beating around the bush" and "pot calling the kettle black" meant after hearing them several times with the type of conversation they were used in. I initially pictured someone beating a bush with a stick, and I still really don't know what hypocrisy has to do with pots and kettles.

It helps me to imagine the literal situations they probably originally referred to. For instance, when farmers used to cut down their harvest manually, with scythes, and there was a bush in the field as there sometimes is, some might cut around it and some would cut through it. I don't know if kettles are traditionally steel or cast iron, though probably the latter, but I know pots tend to be cast iron and therefore black. Only after imagining the metaphor (which idioms are, typically) literally, I'll consider it figured out. I am not too fond of using them, though, as I prefer to make up my own.

I think maybe since NTs get so conditioned into taking things metaphorically, they lose the ability to take things literally. Not all, of course.

 

[anthoskate]

I think that I am better at reading animal facial expressions like dogs, birds, ducks and even iguanas.

 

[DarkLady]

I just took a facial expressions quiz and got 14/20. Not bad for an Aspergic I guess. Is that what it's called, BTW?

 

[Keith]

Aspergian

 

[DarkLady]

Thanks

 

[You'llPokeYourEyeOut]

If something is super duper obvious, like sadness, I can pick up on it. Many other times, I find myself puzzled. Even obvious ones can sometimes be misleading, though. My therapist asked me, "If a person is smiling, doesn't that mean they're happy?" I replied, "Not necessarily." I know for me, there are times I smile when I am nervous or uneasy. Others might mistake my smile for happiness when I am anything but.

 

[Kari Suttle]

I've noticed that people talk about difficulties understanding facial expressions with autism a lot, but I don't really know what it means to necessarily be able to read a facial expression...I don't understand how anyone can really interpret a casual or subtle facial expression though. How can people expect anyone to read minds with facial expressions that aren't obvious?

I'm not sure what they're referring to exactly, but I would think its issues reading facial expressions, tone, and body language in general that significantly impairs your ability to interact with people. For me, i can discern obvious expressions with ease but anything else pretty much falls flat. Annoyance, irritation, and mild anger, i can't tell the difference between them. I can't tell how mad someone is - if they're just irritated or if they're actually pretty angry - unless they're red faced and yelling, giving off obvious clues. Jokes made when someone is annoyed have the same effect on me, i have no clue how serious they're being. If a supervisor or a manager is just a strict, all-business person i can't discern the difference between that just being who they are or if they've simply had a bad day.

 

[Shawn D]

I took one of those facial expressions tests and passed with flying colors. It seems too cut and dry and too simple to make a determination based on some photographs. There are so many subtleties that go into human interaction besides what someone's facial expression is. My greatest challenge is piecing it all together. Growing up, I always thought various people were angry with me and I didn't know why. I guess my inability to read people meant I erred on the side of caution and just assumed the worst, reading into everything.

 

[EricD]

Facial expressions is one of the reasons I initially ruled out having Asperger's Disorder when I learned about it 4.5 years ago.

I have some trouble here and there understanding sarcasm and did have quite some difficulty with idioms growing up. For example, I only learned what "beating around the bush" and "pot calling the kettle black" meant after hearing them several times with the type of conversation they were used in. I initially pictured someone beating a bush with a stick, and I still really don't know what hypocrisy has to do with pots and kettles.

They were both made of iron, usually by hand, and had a dull black finish.

 

[EricD]

I'm not real good with facial expressions, either!

 

[Questella]

I'm terrible at facial expressions, so the entire notion of reading them fails big time with me. Or, as a more appropriate expression "it falls flat on it's face".

But as you mention, the really obvious ones, those aren't hard to miss I guess. Someone dropping the jaw seems pretty obvious, but then again, I think it has to do with the fact that such an expression is a significant expression, rather than a subtle change in eyes, mouth or other parts in the face.

What's interesting though, is that I'm so bad at facial expressions that I'm even terrible at expressing them. I've had sessions with therapists and I threw them off cause my face gave them a different expression as to how I was feeling. So that's an extra issue that comes with it. Not only do I fail in reading them, people fail in reading me as well (and those are the NT's I'm talking about).

As for the type of expressions; I don't think there's a list to see which ones you can and can't read. From my understanding, especially with tests, they come down to facial expressions on pictures and you have to put the correct emotion with said picture. If you're unable to do so pretty consistently (there's a test where you only see a set of eyes and they express something; think it's 36 pictures, and from what I'm reading about it, scoring between 22 and 30 is normal below 22 is the cut off that you're not so good at reading emotions; I remember scoring 4 out of 36 at one time).

The test can be checked out here, but as with any online test, even though it has been conducted by professionals, online tests are to be taken with a grain of salt. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/...d-behind-the-eyes/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

WoW I failed at that, 12 of 36, I'd feel better if 10 of the twelve weren't straight guesses, if it was fill in the blank I'd have no clue... :/