Picking up body language in pictures.

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Would an Aspie notice and understand body language and gestures from a picture? For instance, if an Aspie saw a picture where someone was doing some type of odd/funny thing with their face or hands etc... Would said Aspie notice this right away and depending on the picture, laugh?

I think it depends on how subtle the gesture is. For my part, I often notice that someone is gesturing or doing something with their face, but as far as I'm concerned, whatever it is they're doing could mean various things. For instance:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/te ... arcasm.jpghttp://http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/technology/sarcasm.jpg

I have cleverly deduced (from the text underneath the picture) that Hugh Laurie is supposed to look sarcastic here - but to me he just looks tired, or as if he feels nauseous. Often, in 'real life' - i.e. when the said gesture or expression is taking place in reality and not in a picture - it can be easier to interpret . . . but I think the ambiguity afforded by the stillness of the picture makes things harder.

Really depends on the aspie, as well as how subtle the gesture is. I know I'm not so good with this sort of thing.

I don't see sarcasm in that picture either. I think sarcasm is more of a tone of voice thing. It's hard for me to tell body language from a picture. It's too static and body language is of course kinetic.

In the above picture, I can see the sarcasm, sort of. It is a faint feeling for me. I wonder what it would be without the title. That is, if I wasn't told what it was!


I actually scored a lot higher than I expected on an facial recognition test. Based off of still images, although it had 4 options to pick from. I got like 34, which I think was average to above average. Without the options, I don't think I could have named most of the emotions. I'd like to see a test where I type in the answer instead.

I was watching Lie To Me last night. Usually, you're given a lot of hints from the protagonist about others thoughts and feelings (based off of their expressions and behavior). I managed to catch shame, and expected the protagonist to mention it, but he didn't. However, that angle was worked later in the show. I may be better at facial recognition than I think, but I rarely look at peoples faces when talking with them, so this doesn't mean much anyway.

that's not sarcasm, it's more like "you cant be serious?" or "are you really that dumb?"

i would

I don't understand body language or any of that stuff, yet I talk with my hands alot.

I look more like this - " " - when I'm being sarcastic, or maybe like this " "

The only facial expression tests I've seen are moving pictures where you only get a fraction of a second to detect the signal (I think they were fake and genuine smiles) - not long enough to consciously see anything but apparently long enough for your unconscious to get the message. All of which suggests that body language may be more of a dynamic thing, not something that still photos would be able to convey, though I note that only 20% of the standard WP emoticon set are of the moving sort, and I suspecvt that 2 of these needn't be ("embarrassed" and "rolling eyes"), so clearly static facial expressions can transfer some of the basic feelings, though emoticons aren't real humans of course, and might not prove much. Hmmmm.....still photos of people often seem convey a lot of emotions though.

I was once quite shocked when I first saw a photo of my (then) parents-in-law......in real life they'd come over as quite energetic in spite of their age, but the photo showed two worn-out, rather unhappy old people. It's hard to say which was the truth.

Naturally the entire context is the richest source of emotional signals, but single features might also be informative.

With people I don't know, if I'm being sarcastic I have no expression whatsoever, which means they don't realise I'm being sarcastic, so it falls flat and then the situation is awkward.