Relaxed face=angry look?

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Lol , WurdBendur thats funny. Yea I think the same thing most of the time.
The so called "experts at non-verbal communication" can't tell when we are relaxed.

I am told that I look "intense" when relaxing.

I get 'intense' (it's called 'thinking' guys, not that difficult...! !). Problem is it always happens when I'm out with a group of friends and start thinking about other things, I'll kinda focus on something across the room and everyone starts laughing and asking what's wrong as I look upset or 'super focussed'. Or "Oh wow, yeah, that picture's fascinating... are you there? Hello? Wake up! You haven't had THAT much to drink yet!!" or such like. It just makes me laugh though, I know I look silly when I'm relaxed or thinking.

Here's an article ftom The New Yorker that I think you'll find interesting (it's long). Note that the two researchers of facial expression sound like classic aspies.

The Naked Face

It rather scary stuff for an aspie.

It always happens to me. My family does not say anything about it, because they are probably used to it. But just about every day someone at work asks me what is wrong, or if I'm doing all right, because I "look pretty bummed out." I tell them it is my neutral face, or sometimes, I tell them it's my happy face. I am really unable to smile for more than a few seconds without feeling awkward and forced.

Most of the time I go around with a pretty angry looking scowl on my face, but that's just a result of being intensely focused in thought.

On the other hand, people who have smiles permanently etched into their face piss me off to no end. One smiling guy like this at work is short and chubby and has beady bug-eyes that bulge out of their sockets. He really physically resembles a clown!

all the time.

Yes, people often tell me that I look sad or angry when I am actually neutral, content, and relaxed. When I am actually sad or angry, I apparently look tired or smug.

I am also asked if I am angry, I am not. I could be in deep thought. I have been accussed of staring when I am looking at

something else or in deep thought. That is why when I am at lunch I am reading, I have a good excuse, for I am in school.

I have tried to smile and nod at people , and have tried to be friendly at work.

Yeah, same here. Anytime I'm neutral, thinking, or maybe even slightly happy, people still tell me I look angry.

yep, me too.

Me too.
Been told I look mad, when my face is "at rest"-meaning neither smiling nor scowling, just being. I can sorta' see why people might think that, when I look in mirror, since they can't see how I feel inside/behind my appearance. I figure it's just my features, how my eyes nose mouth & so on happen to be arranged-nothing to do with my neurological status. When I genuinely am feeling strong emotion, whether happy or sad/mad, my features are plenty expressive in reflecting/conveying those states.

I may have gradually learned this, or maybe it's innate-I don't know-but I tend to guess someone's mad or upset & then am told that this isn't so. It's confusing-I know what those emotions look like-yet how they appear in the present, on a specific individual (and whether that person is aware of, or willing to admit to feeling a certain way) is far from obvious. I've done well on those still photo "read-the-emotions-in-the-eyes" tests, but IRL (with a person who is moving & speaking, while other stuff is going on) I'm not skilled at it.

I usually have an "intense" and slightly sad and melancholic-looking relaxed facial expression that often triggers "What are you thinking about so hard?" comments.

People think I am angry all the time when I am not. It's probably because it is too bright outside so I am always squinting.

I have an "angry" face almost every moment. However, when I'm talked to I tend to smile.

Strange thing: I'm always criticized for smiling too much, or never smiling; I don't get it. I also never smile, nor frown, when it's appropriate. Ha.

Me too.

If I'm nuetral/relaxed, people tend to think I'm stressed out or sad. When I am stressed or sad, people thing I'm angry at them, which is annoying. When I really, deeply relax and zone out a little, people think I'm high, and sometimes try to get my attention.

When I'm neutral, people say I look tired or tell me to cheer up.
And once a random guy in the street asked me why I was depressed