Reading Facial Expression

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I've recently received an informal AS diagnosis from my psychologist, and, while it explains so many things (the more I read the more it explains) there is something that I have been struggling to deal with: the reading of emotions. Despite the benefits of AS, I just don't want to go through life unable to connect with people, particularly that one special woman. It really frightens me, as I'm quite the romantic, and would trade every ounce of talent and intelligence to be able to have a connection with someone I love.

I've been trawling the internet looking for ways to test my ability to read emotions through facial expressions. The first I found was through these forums; a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngXjQ88yBtw) of a staged conversation between two boys. You have to pause the video no later than 8 seconds in and discern the first boy's facial expression.

*SPOILER*

I watched the video and instantly recoiled at the horrible acting. I found the facial expression to be just bad acting, and thought that the boy was supposed to be thinking "this guy's a try-hard loser" but was actually thinking "now I'm supposed to pull a facial expression as if this guy is a loser and I've tricked him". Every NT I've shown instantly says "he thinks he's lying". Some can't even pick that it is staged. What is going on here?

This lead me to search for more tests.

I found an old spot-the-fake-smile on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/ ... ndex.shtml) and quite easily saw the fake smiles from the real, getting a 15/20 score (interestingly enough, the only wrong answers were real smiles I thought were fake — such the pessimist).

From the BBC site:

What!? MOST people are bad at spotting a fake smile? Do I even HAVE AS?? I thought I was supposed to be blind to this stuff!

On to more tests. I found a site selling a Micro Expression Training Tool (http://mettonline.com/).

From the METT site:


I took their practice test and scored an impressive 40% for a beginner. Remember they only show the expressions for 1/25th of a second. I'm interested to know how others go.

Finally, there is ARTnatomy (www.artnatomia.net), a tool designed to help artists learn about the morphology of expressions on the human face. There is no test per se, but using the tool you can test your own ability to spot what expressions the example face is making. These are quite pronounced expressions, much different from the subtleness of the "micro expression" most people use in day-to-day life, so doesn't say much, but still, I had zero difficulty in recognising the expressions.

I'd also like to add something I find rather peculiar. I consider myself skilled at seeing through people. An example might be if I am sitting across a room watching a group of people all talking and laughing, but I'll notice the one depressed girl, who looks completely happy to her friends, but to me she could be standing there openly crying. How is this possible when I can't even carry a conversation (or think straight) with more than one person involved?

My psychologist has given me an example of another guy he sees who can read people like open books when in impersonal situations, but can't understand his wife. I relate. What is with this? Do others here have a similar experience?

I've also been "informally diagnosed" as you called it. I did a whole lot of those online tests before and found out that I did really well on the ones that are not timed.

In a real life situation you don't get that much time to analyse an expression though.

I noticed that in real life situations I can interpret an expression correctly (at least I believe I'm interpreting it correctly) only if:
-it doesn't happen while I'm talking- when I talk I can't concentrate at interpreting facial expressions and on making sense at the same time
-I'm already familiar with this expression or with this person's facial play
-it lasts long enough- at least a few seconds

there's a few expressions that I'm all too familiar with, like the "puzzled" expression- the usual response I get from people when I try to approach them. I have no trouble detecting the basic happy/sad/angry expressions. I'm pretty bad at detecting fake smiles and all the other two-faced behaviours that people have.

I'm complately unable to notice when someone is flirting with me, for some reason.

I excel at interpreting the faces of my close friends though- I can always tell when something is wrong. I can never tell when they tease me though so obviously they do it constantly.

I just got 17 out of 20 for the BBC test
Interesting because I'm currently re-examining my jaundiced view of mainstream society, in the light of my recently-acquired Aspie-awareness. I have no trouble delivering a coherent and watertight indictment of society as basically a huge sham, but I can see how AS may have messed up my social chances and how pride and capacity for rationalisation could have done a "sour grapes" job on my views. I've sometimes said to my wife that somebody on the TV looked like a fake smiler, and was wondering whether I was just prejudiced.

But while doing the test I felt like I was just guessing much of the time, as there's no "don't know" button. I found it a bit scary looking at all those faces, and the wide-angle lens they used didn't help - always makes people look distorted and weird. And guessing would lead to a score of 10, on average. So what looks like being wrong only 15% of the time is really 30% of the time - and that's good? Anyway, as you say, it's not the last name in tests. I might try the other ones later. Thanks for posting the links, it's great to be able to get some kind of objective handle on these things.

I still don't know what flirting is and isn't. I can sometimes interact with men in a very familiar way - seems to go down OK and I enjoy it a lot, but with women I just don't know what I'm signalling, or what they're signalling. People's opinions seem to contradict each other. I suppose context plays quite a part. There ougnt to be a book of rules or something. Is there even a proper definition of flirting?

I've noticed strong facial expressions like stress at times, but don't recall doing much to help - though if I know by other ways that somebody's upset, I can be a lot more helpful. I guess I'm just not used to using facial cues, still see them as a new concept.

I just took that BBS test too and got 16 out of 20. I didn't realise I was that good ;p

I spent years studying people and reading communication books. I am pretty good now at reading people in certain situations. I'm much better when I'm the observer than a participant. When I'm talking to someone, I almost need to be able to review the conversation later to get an accurate idea of what happened.

I believe that while we have a tendency towards this problem, many of us have compensated by intense study. I'm fascinated by people's faces. I guess you'd call it a special interest. But I go far more on what people are saying than their expressions. I find it hard if I'm involved...but as an observer...quite good I think.

I got 10 out of 20 on that BBC one; I guessed for all of them.

I'm ok with noticing smiles and other overt emotions (tears, frowns, etcetera), but I can't seem to be able to pick up the million and one minor nuances that each one can mean.

I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for taking the time for it.

When I watched the youtube video I had no idea the guy was thinking the first guy was lying. I though he was just a little surprised and reacting to his uneasiness by raising his eyebrows. When I heard he was thinking the other guy was lying I just stared at the frozen image and tried really hard to focus on the things the video pointed out. Maybe it was bad acting, but it confused me more than anything.

I took the BBC test. That was hard!! ! I got 12 out of 20. There were a lot of them I guessed on. I just couldn't tell. In most of the videos I focused on the smile and the eyes.

Reading people has been really hard for me when I am in conversation with me. It might have to do because I am hyper-focused on them and every little detail, and/or I am trying to do a few things at once with them: try to read their body language, filter out background noises, try to carry a conversation, etc. That is a lot to do and I honestly can't keep up.

I copied the last part of your post because I very much relate to it. I don't know if it is the same reasons, but when I am just an observer, I can put all of my effort into watching and I see all sorts of things. But if I am in the conversation, I am slow to see body language or facial expressions.

Yes, needing to re-run the interactions on video later, so much of these social things are so "blink and you'll miss it" - I sometimes think the difference between AS and NT is simply time. It'd be nice to turn back the clock and have another go, like Groundhog Day.

I don't know how many times I've sensed feelings in people - I've had a number of insights that have really startled me, but I don't recall finding out whether or not I was right very often. Definitely there are often people who are somewhat "out of it" when I look at a group.

Got 14 out of 20, have a feeling I'd have got more right but for some reason it seemed like the video would skip...

Movies would irritate me for the reason that the "emotion" would seem fake to me. Probably one of reasons I despised "reality" TV, always seemed "set up" to me.

I have the ability of seeing through people and their bull; mostly because their logic doesn't fit reality. I think I am terrible at reading expressions, however. So if some people were good at lying or faking, I generally can see that easily when others do not. I can also spot schmoozers and people manipulating other people (not as good when the manipulation is directed at me, unless they are incossistent, logically.

The other problem is that sometimes people react emotionally, making their logic irrational, and I mistakenly think they are trying to be manipulative; when it is just the emotions speaking. I have to be careful with that.

I only got 9 out of 20 on the BBC smile test....no wonder I cant tell when people are making fun of me LOL.

10/20 on the BBC test. It was hard... I want to know what the average score for it is.
Facial expressions are difficult for me in real life (though that probably has a lot to do with rarely looking at another's face). I can recognize basic ones and more, though, and I used to think I was pretty good at interpreting them. Maybe I'm overthinking them.

anyway...

Edit: My perfectly neurotypical sister took this and got 6/20 right. She was not pleased. Weird.

Last edited by theQuail on 03 Oct 2008, 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

10/20 too, which just means I guessed them I suppose
On the answer page, out of the ones I got right there are 4 I would say I was confident when picking them. wheeee

15... I surprised myself.

I note that all my answers seemed to depend not on the smile itself, nor the transitions, but on the start/end state.

I'm a bit like this...I can sit in a crowded room and notice body language wherever I look unless it's directed at me.
It's hard to escape the feeling that's because none of it IS directed toward you.
(errr... if I look away whenever someone turns a face to me... what do I expect?)

I got 100% on that BBC thing. I've done other facial expression tests and tend to score best on them if I either randomly choose or if I use rule based formulas -often there will be 4 suggested expressions and it's very nearly never the 'odd one out', so by rejecting the one that's not like the other 3, the chances of a correct answer raise from 1/4 to 1/3.

Unless my computer just ran the test too slow (the expressions occurred in very slow motion when I viewed them), the BBC test can be aced if you are able to detect (at the same time) 2 of the 3 point movement caused by micro-smiles (a 'real' smile entails a micro-expression utilizing facial muscles not under voluntary control).

In a real smile, the micro-smile occurs as a movement of muscles above the brows and nose, at the brows, there is an upward movement, and there is a downward movement centered above the nose. I can track one fully while detecting the presence of movement and general direction of movement of another, so I pick one spot to look at (outer brow of one eye, or above nose) and can still detect if there is a movement that seems like the downward plunge or the upward tilt (from the next reference point over).

If there is not the sense of the proper movement in the nose and one of the brow regions (I cannot 'see' all three at once), then it is a fake. I got 100% using this method, but I'm not sure if the expressions are supposed to display in slow motion (I doubt I could pick up the movements at real-time speed), and I already knew where to look as a result of a documentary I had once seen about micro-expressions.

Yes. In most conversation, I cannot tell if the other person involved is interested or bored or thinks I'm horrible unless they are being pretty extreme about it. Watching people interact with each other while ignoring me, I sometimes easily come to know more than, it turns out, people figure I ought to.

I suppose it's because I find subtle changes in posture and movement-patterns easier to read than facial-expressions, and best observe them at a greater than conversational distance. If I am directly interacting I don't think as straight and am politely watching the person's face and standing too close to properly see the whole line and movement of the ape.

I have scored a 14 on the fake-smile test by clicking 'genuine' for people who resemble somebody I like.