can somebody explain how body language is given and recieved

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So for NT's how do they receive body language? Would they see someone tilt their head and actually think or that person is tilting their head this must mean something... Also how do NT's know what body language they are giving out?
can I have a few SPECIFIC examples I do not understand.

Last edited by hollowmoon on 09 Oct 2014, 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

I believe the distinction is that in AS/ASD, body language is learned through observation and interpreted by cognition, whereas in neurotypical world, body language is automatically interpreted and assimilated into thought, perhaps in the way that the words of this post are automatically turned into something meaningful by reading them.

(How'd I go guys? )

I believe the ability is called "mimicry" and is used by young animals to duplicate social actions. It's an automatic way for "most" young animals to learn to "fit in."

It's automatic, and I think sometimes people aren't fully conscious of it. There are articles out there for NTs to improve their mimicry (imitating someone's body language to suggest you're similar or thinking the same) and what they're communicating with their body language.

People often cross their arms when they're feeling closed-off or wary, and many do this automatically without thinking about it. So, other people "sense" that this person isn't very friendly because people with crossed arms have always been less friendly, characters in television have crossed their arms when they're mad, etc. That may be the opposite of what wanted, especially if they're not conscious of the signals they're sending and want to seem approachable even if they're nervous. Some people theorize that crossing your arms over your stomach and chest protects your vital organs, your chakras, or various other things, and that's why it's a bit of a defensive posture.

It's impression-based, with those different physical signals triggering different impressions. Normally this works fairly well because on a biological/cultural level NTs have agreed from an early age on what means what, even if subconsciously.

The brain wants to waste as little energy and processing power as possible, so it generally doesn't bother consciously and individually looking at all the body language.

thanks! but in this example if this person didn't think this other crossed armed person was friendly would they really follow this feeling? Would they trust this feeling even though this person didn't do or said anything that indicated they are unfriendly?

This was never something I did, but echolalia was very prevelant in my life, to today. This is what I have been echoing a lot today.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qim25T-fcjk[/youtube]

I also noticed my turtles mimic each other, but they are growing up more... they are 2 years old each now.

My understanding is that the observer here probably wouldn't take it to the extent of "this is an unfriendly person" and trust that completely, based on this one non-verbal cue. People form judgements based on many cues weighed up (mostly subconsciously). What would be likely to happen is the observer would be getting a piece of information in their subconscious that is suggesting "this person might be unfriendly" and so the resulting reaction may be, e.g., to not begin a conversation with them when they would have otherwise, or to be a bit unfriendly themselves as a protective mechanism when interacting with the person, or have a slight negative initial opinion of the person...there are many possibilities. The important thing is that these reactions can be very quick, very fleeting, very unstable. All that is needed is for the person with their arms crossed to do something that negates the "unfriendly" impression and the information getting to the observer changes and their impression is updated*.

*Not reliably though. As they say, "first impressions last". The brain isn't great at completely scrapping old information to make way for better information. The subconscious may hold onto that "this person might be unfriendly" impression for longer than the conscious brain wants to. One can end up with a frustrating situation of "I just can shake this feeling that there's something off about this person...I don't know what it is...". Their subconscious is giving importance to some non-verbal cue that their conscious brain is not aware of or has discarded.