What is the 'Aspie Stare'?

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Lol the more I read on here the more I wonder about myself!! !
Social groups:get ignored or stay quiet. Check.
Say inappropriate things or off-topic or off timing: Check
Blank stare: All my life I've been told to cheer up cos I have a blank face so a few years ago I trained myself to smile more. Also I go blank when am mentally hyper-focused on a linear thought process in my head. And told I'm intense.

Still wondering if this is mild spectrum stuff or inherited from parent. We weren't super socialised as kids.

Funny thing is I went through some hard times and became super paranoid about talking about my problems that in feeling like I had not much to contribute I kinda shut down a lot socially...with my oldest childhood friends? They just accept me and make me feel normal, so I never even felt outcast til much later in life.
Always felt different though

Just went back and realized this is a little off-topic. Sorry about that!! (laughs inappropriately and rebelliously does not delete post)

I can remember to my toddler years going into blank stares so much so my pupils would relax & I'd see things all blurry once I realized I was spaced out. 99% of the time I would be in intense thought, but having severe adhd combined type unmedicated, would easily go into tangential thoughts & 1% of the time my mind would just relax & I'd space out...what I called my "natural meditation." What I felt was my brain's way of trying to stop always analyzing everything all the time. After being put on stimulant medication the spacing out became less frequent & way less tangential slowly over time. I still space out & stare only now it seems more attached to when I'm analyzing my inability to emote appropriately or reciprocally to others. Since I'm a open Aspie I don't get too many remarks from coworkers or friends regarding the staring. My mother's side of the family has a lot of autistics & I seem to be the most functional. My grandmother does what a call the "pirate eye" by staring at you while squinting one eye shut. She does it when you're watching TV or eating so when I catch her doing it I'll quickly spin my head & say what are you staring at?' & for almost 20 years now she denies it every time & will say I'm "seeing things." Problem for her is the entire family agrees with me because she does it to them to, they even call it pirate eye. Once in awhile she'll stare long enough if you ignore it & say some remark or question that is kinda odd. Now that she is older & has had health problems she stares more, longer & more obviously. It is maddening to deal with but because she is older now I try hard not to be so impulsively responsive. I don't stare at people, matter of fact I have problems looking at faces in general. But she definitely passed on the autism gene down.

What's the difference between an "aspie stare" and "1000 yard stare"? I think NTs do this too.

Maybe it's because we're blankly staring most of the time? My face goes all slack and I look very vacant and stupid. Half the people who know me think I'm extremely stupid and half think I'm some kind of genius--neither of which is true.

Some people told me that I have a strange expression on my face. They asked me why I look at them in such a strange way. They said I look as if I'm making some plots against them. In this case I just looked at them, nothing else.

Others (at my job) said that I have an angry face when I work. When I said that I'm not angry they didn't believe. I cannot stop them from thinking that I despise my job and hate being there. I guess that I was just working and thinking about how to do things.

It really makes me confused and I don't know how to explain that I'm not making plots, and that I'm not despise them and that I'm not arrogant etc.

Does it have to do with this "aspie stare" thing or is it different?

I had a huge problem when I first started playing drum's, I would stare intensely at either a person or wall while I was playing, it freaked the hell out of the majority of folk but I never realised I was even doing it

Well, I'm really not sure of whether I have Aspergers Syndrome or otherwise. However, I have traits, and I often have an intense need/desire/urge to look people in the eyes. I NEED to see them, for some reason. I get rather irritated if I can't, to be honest.

It's quite ironic, considering that I literally don't even look at people who I don't like. xD

I'm not a super expert on this, but I have a BA in Sociology with a concentration in Social Psychology and I'm currently working on an MS in sociology with a concentration on the Sociology of Autism.

Mindsigh is right. It's the facial slackness, mostly. But I believe there is also a blankness to the eyes that is also there with ASD. In the "1000 yard stare"- this is seen with PTSD. Both involve a flat affect, which is a blank look. And of course you could be on the spectrum and have PTSD. But if you were NT and had PTSD you would not have the facial slackness and your eyes would be different. Like I said, I haven't studied this enough to say exactly how they're different. I think that NTs perceive that there is something terrible going on inside the head of a NT with the 1000 yard stare, but they can't tell at all what's going on inside someone on the spectrum who is looking blank, like the actress in the Dragon Tattoo that someone posted (love that movie and the nod to her being autistic- I think she's an empowering character).

It scares NTs to not be able to tell what's going on inside another person. It's not as scary when it's a girl as opposed to a guy, because society views women differently. If you think about it, it's no one's business what's going on inside you, but this is just how NTs are. We don't stop to think about it (well except me). It's all just hive mind Borg stuff that no one can help. lol

How about extremely dark or mirrored sunglasses? Roy Orbison made it a cool trademark look, why can't we? They can't tell you're staring if they can't see your eyes.

now that makes a little more sense . i have been in trouble many of times for not looking at someone and just staring into nothing when in trouble, yet never realised i was doing it. i find it extremely hard to make eye contact and when i do i feel really awkward. People are always telling me to cheer up and smile yet didnt realise i wasn't! which sometimes causes me too feel anxious and socialising gets made harder. Any solutions/ cures...please let me know

I do this blank staring into space thing and sometimes people have asked 'are you ok?' or look perturbed if I do it mid conversation; looking away from them as I'm trying to concentrate on what I'm saying.

What I don't understand is why it's so important to other people what expression is on my face??
What's it to them? It's as if NTs think they have some kind of collective ownership of the face of everyone around them and they expect everyone else's faces to broadcast and receive emotion/information in exactly the same way and if you don't there's something 'wrong' with you or you're acting in some kind of subversive way. I don't care what expression other people want to have on their faces as long as they leave me alone and my expressions should be none of their business. Why can't people be satisfied with what's in their own and their companions' heads? - why does their curiosity have to extend to everyone in their vicinity? - it's tedious and makes me think they're empty-headed as they can't find interest within their own brains.

I think this is not typical aspie stare. This looks pretty normal to me.

The eyes look more strange

Often I've been told that when a person is staring blankly at me, that they are more than likely just lost in their thoughts and happen to be looking towards me, not so much because they are judging me. So I didn't think it was a signifficant Aspie trait, it should really be changed to something like ''the subconscious stare'' or something like that, because it seems a lot of people can relate. I hate catching people's eye, so when I feel I'm going to be in one place for a long time in public, I look at the ground or over in the distance, so I don't catch myself staring at somebody else.

After reading this thread, it has dawned on me that this could be one of my social handicaps. I never even knew there was such a thing as an Aspie stare. But---in conversations with people, after about 90 seconds they begin to squirm and act uncomfortable and even start scratching themselves on the arm.They can be the ones talking, usualy, or I might talk, too. I used to think that the fact that I wasn't smiling was what made them so uncomfortable. So I would start smiling (trying to appear friendly and interested) but that never helped.

Now I guess I was giving them the "aspie" stare without realizing it. AND, at least half of people that I have been in conversations or group discussions with have avoided eye contact with me. Why? Is this a way of avoiding the aspie stare?

Never realised from photos of yours?
I use to look quite strange in those
quite often, but not always

Onks, in photos, the people I am with and I are usually in a posed group photo where we are deliberately smiling. For that reason, Photos aren't an accurate way for me to see what I look like in a relaxed, spontaneous social behavior.