do NTs consiously think of facial expressions

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i dont know if NTs will look at a face and just KNOW a person is sad or if they have to reconize it with a different face? how can they tell one face from another? i fine Sad and Angry very simular, i have trouble telling the two apart, and also laughing and crying. how can an NT tell them apart?

It's instinctive for them. They aren't even consciously aware of doing it, but if you ask them afterwards how they knew, they'll say "I could just tell by the look on their face."

That's a great question. I think you need to study the forehead and the eyebrow area. If that area makes folds like a "V" then the emotion = "bad"

But more helpful would be if you listened to the sounds they make. I think you should be able to tell the difference between a laughing and crying sound. And an angry person's voice has an intensity to it that a sad person's doesn't. Or is sound also a problem for you?

Oh yeah - one more thing. NT expressions can be so subtle there is no way to tell at all unless they tell you. And then, of course, you can't tell if they are telling the truth....so there comes a point where all us Aspies reach a limit!

It's instinctive for NT people. I have casually asked my ex-girlfriend and friends about this and they can't really answer just "I don't know, I just knew."

Myself I also have a hard time with this but I've trained myself over the years. I need to listen to the noises they make as well and put 2 & 2 together. Otherwise I'm at a loss. Happy and Sad are the easiest. But Sad and Angry confuse me and then once you add in Contempt, Frustration, Irritation... I give up and just ask or say "What's wrong?" and more often then not they'll tell me.

I get enough, "what's wrongs?" in the course of a day to safely assume that yes, they are. I doubt it is intentional, or even conscious, but I get "read" wrong, a lot.

I tend not to look people in the eye, but when I do, I have the biggest problem with smiling. I can't tell if the person is being sincerely friendly, or mean/manipulative in some way. I've improved with age, but it seems like a lot of NT's figured it all out long ago.

Pretty much - depends on the person and how easy they are to read but I consider myself quite perceptive at reading body language

You should watch the first season of "lie to me." It's show about looking at incidental facial expressions that reflect actual emotions while a false facial expression is being worn. The actors make very over-dramatic slowed down facial expressions as part of saying a word or phrase etc and it is very obvious, then the "investigator" explains what that emotion is and why the normal facial expressions are false. In later seasons they go "god -mode" and it is just assumed the investigators know what they are talking about so they show the faces less.

You know what?

The more I read your posts, the more I realize that, despite years of trial and error, I really can't tell what people are feeling by their facial expressions. I'm deceiving myself if I think I can.

I used to not be able to read facial expressions that well. When I was eleven I decided that I needed to improve. Simply by paying more attention to facial expressions I got better at reading them.

LOL -- cartoons and actors in movies are easy because they exaggerate. It's the real life stuff that is so subtle that, really, I'm at a loss.

It's so much easier being alone, isn't it?