Video- Nonverbal communication test and analysis

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I usually think my nonverbal communication perception is pretty good. At least, I pick up on signals to know when someone is happy, sad, bored, sarcastic, etc. However, I just found this video on YouTube that breaks apart a short interview and analyzes the man's body language. There is so much going on here that I never would have understood!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8LA10Tg1Os

(Before you keep reading and read what I thought the man was communicating, you might want to watch the video for yourself and see what you think.)





When I first watched the interview, this is what I though:
- At first Mr. Cusack seemed bored.
- When he started saying that he hadn't been in the movie the woman was talking about, I thought he was joking, until the very end of the interview, when he told her he thought she was confused. Then, I realized he was not joking, but I still thought he might be lying. (I actually just looked it up, and he wasn't lying. John Cusack was really not in American Beauty.)

Then I watched the analysis part.

So, did any of you do better than me on this? Do neurotypical people usually pick up on these things? I guess the analysis covered more information than an average neurotypical person would have picked up on, otherwise it would not have been notable enough to make a YouTube video out of it.

I caught the breast-oogling multiple times because objectification of women is one of my pet peeves, but I thought he was joking about not being in the movie too, until the very end.

the hand-raising and eyebrow thing I would've considered obvious, though I wouldn't have thought about it. the shifts in position and the various other things I would never have seen. I think this video is trying to sell body language reading training to NTs, though, so it's to be expected that it would go above and beyond the normal reading of his expressions/positions/etc.

I think absolutely any NT would have picked up on the breast-oogling and the hand/eyebrow raising things.

I didn't pick up anything. I didn't get the idea that John Cusack was irritated, critical, annoyed, angry, etc. that was described. I didn't notice where he was looking or what he was looking at, and I didn't think anything about his hand motion.

I just thought he was bored or annoyed, that's it. But I don't think many neurotypicals would notice those things either? Also how do we know this person's analysis is correct and those were really what this man was thinking/feeling/whatever?

We don't.

I didn't pick up on any of that!

When I watched this video for the first time, I thought that John Cusack seemed annoyed because the interviewer had been asking him questions irrelevant to whatever movie that he was promoting at that time. He seemed to give off "Why am I still talking with you?" vibes that NTs often give me. I only noticed him looking at the interviewer's breasts when I re-watched the video.

I turned the sound off and watched.

I couldn't tell squat from his "gestures."

I did not catch a single one of the non-verbals cues.

I just hope no one expects us autistics to master that complexity of analysis during all our interactions with humans and benefit from it in real time. It's ridiculously useless.

I got the feeling he was annoyed, but only from general attitude - he used all those tricks that Americans use when they're making an effort not to react aggressively, namely acting "too" ok, eg the raised eyebrows, the fake cheerfulness.

I got pretty much nothing from that at all. He might as well have been a robot.

i got the first breast oogle, but that's it. the rest are just motions in my eyes, distracting if anything.
actually, while half of the explained motions seemed wrong or BS to me, the other half i missed completely...

Watching the clip, before breakdown:

I feel uneasy, like maybe they're being slightly hostile. If I got these signals off of my parents or someone else I really trusted, I'd ask them if they were angry. They'd probably act surprised and say no, and I'd feel reassured. (That prediction hints to me that I'm wrong in this reaction, but part of me is insisting there's hostility there.)

I also think maybe the girl is flirting? No clue if I'm right there.

After breakdown:

OK, I missed him checking out her breasts. How am I supposed to know that when I can't see her breasts?

He's apparently nervous - is that what made me uneasy?

No, I think it was the puzzled/critical expression that first set it off.

OK, maybe I was more right than I thought - he's apparently showing irritation? And closing off from her. And then they outright mention anger.

I was doing better than I thought. Why is he angry that she made a mistake? It seems silly to me.