Do neurotypicals mask?

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I was talking to someone at work and he mentioned two other colleagues who are both known to be very cheerful. He said they both hide their emotions. He said you'll never know if they're feeling happy or sad because they will put on this mask of cheerfulness regardless. If they feel bad they will hide it.

He said that many people mask, neurotypicals included. What do you think of it? Do neurotypicals mask?

It is so common that people get upset (with you) when you don't mask, short for: put in that effort
the slap in the face when you just annihilate(percieved) their hard works on appearance, and how dare you
not respect and adhere to consensus-status signalling (unconciously on-course)

Everyone fakes emotion
A lot of depressed people mask, acting happy around friends while they are sad.
I've seen people make very bad attempts at faking compassion when they are not emotionally invested

I feel as if it's as emotionally draining as autistic masking, and usually for the same reason, to want to fit in to societies norms. Whether due to external pressure or self inflicted.

Maybe a difference would be that as an autistic person I mask a whole lot of my personality in an attempt to appear "normal" whereas neurotypicals usually mask emotions

Of course. I was so used to seeing people with "proper" expressions I was astonished to see people displaying real emotions. I also know many of those people are completely different within their homes. Like my mom is a terror within our family, but kind and charming to outsiders. Even long-time friends of our family cannot believe that she can be so scary. I wish she'd treat me like a friend but she wouldn't put up such effort. Of course people who are naturally more easygoing and "proper" probably wouldn't need to try too hard to mask. But those who are born chaotic or volatile probably need to mask as much as aspies do to be accepted and respected.

Hell yeah, most people I met were not only faking but being fake, for whatever personal, psychological or social reasons. Usually to keep up with whichever Joneses they were obsessed with. I don't trust them one bit, especially if they're too nice.

All the world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players...and all that.

Yes neurotypicals hide their true feelings a lot. It's called diplomacy, discretion, sensitivity, courtesy, dishonesty, and duplicity, and it's commonly believed to make the world go round.

I've long had a problem with some of the definitions of "ASD masking," and prefer to define it as only happening when there's a clear attempt to conceal some aspect of ASD. Learning how to deal effectively with others by modifying one's behaviour isn't necessarily masking at all.

Sure they do. It is also called “being a professional”.

In general we have to mask to a greater extent and more often.

If you have met one neurotypical, you have met one neurotypical.

A typical neurotypical hides feelings, intentions and opinions etc to a large extent. But I think that comes rather natural, like it's an expression of the person's personality. It doesn't take a lot of energy like autistic masking. That's what I think.

I think they do mask and they do so by hiding any negative emotions that they may have. That's why you never see them cry.