Can Aspies read facial expressions?

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Here is a test about 'compound emotions' (such as angry sadness).
http://www.theguardian.com/science/shor ... rsity-quiz
I guess those would be particularly difficult for someone to recognize if they're not good at reading faces in general.
It's very much about little details, tiny changes around the eyes and mouth for example, which makes me wonder: If it doesn't come by intuition, are people with Asperger's then still able to learn to read faces in a good way by using their strength of looking at the details?

For me, if they're exaggerated enough, sure. If they're kinda neutral and not showing strong emotion, then it's tougher, in general.

It would probably help if I actually spent more time looking at faces.

It's a lot easier to understand facial expressions based on pictures. In real life, they seem more ambiguous somehow.

I got 7/10 on that test, but I completely guessed on a few of them. There's no way I'd be able to analyse even the ones I legitimately got correct in real time. I also couldn't see how the faces were expressing "compound emotions".

I got a 7/10.

Yes and no. Obvious expressions are fairly easy to catch. Part of the problem is if someone flashes some sort of facial change but I am not looking at their face when they do it I would miss it. I hate looking non stop in someone's face, I feel like I am being a creep and actually can concentrate better on their words if I am not looking them dead in the eye.

What really trips me up is if someone says something but leaves out a significant portion of the statement, expecting me to fill in the gaps for them. I don't know what that person might have been assuming so I don't know how to fill in the gap. Give me the details clearly, don't expect me to guess what you mean. I find written communication much better in this respect as someone has to rely on words to explain much more than vague things like tone or facial inflections.

I found that I had a baseline of instinctive or relatively quickly learned facial expressions (the easy ones admittedly) and if given a context- I am VERY good at this like those facial reading test online- I score mostly perfectly- the catch it I learned this a la the temple grandin movie, I took pictures of people's faces (becoming NT was my most intense (and futile) special interest at the time and my parents tried real hard to train me...), and memorized their faces exactly and then envisioned what they would look like on different ethnic minorities and then tried them in the mirror myself FOR HOURS OVER AND OVER, every single day for years (when I was young), but I became VERY good at reading a large range of faces- however, I realized some flaws over the years in my facial recognition data-base/program if you will.
1.) if it is context-less randomly generated expressions- I bomb it, can't read them. I can basically only read "happy" or like "crying now" or suuuuuper basic stuff (I had to do this for a class.... and I was SO ashamed because I couldn't do it and every just stopped turned and stared and me- literally the whole class and whispered loudly "the f**k is wrong with her? Is she stupid? What a b***h she's saying the wrong stuff on purpose!" Then I began to hyperventilate haha!
2.)If I haven't it or something similar before- NOPE i have to ask no way around it or else I will not know....
3.)If sensory overload/overwhelmed
4.) cultural context is different- like for a non-western English speaking country- it's all like ghibberish again!

I also studied cartoons and watched lots of commercials and built up a passive/active data bank of patterns of behavior/expected reaction to a sequence of facial contortions, even if I had a hard time pining down the displayed facial expression.

Not being able to read facial expressions is one of my most severe symptoms; especially if the only cue is the eyes (like in the Mind in the Eyes test). My biggest problem is perceiving positive faces as negative faces.

8/10

I wouldn't even know a way to tell if one is good, average or bad at reading facial expressions. After all people don't tell you: 'Hey, my facial expression was just this and this, could you tell?' And except for when one is watching silent movies there are always other cues to tell. I mean, does someone look shocked or surprised? Well, if they are being told they are fired from their job I'd go for shocked, and if they are being told they've won a million dollars I'd go for surprised. When I don't know what has happened before I can't tell for sure, but then again I'm sure no one can (is the person silently sitting there and staring at the table bored, tired, having a headache or sad because he just broke up with his girlfriend, who knows?). Plus one is not always aware of the facial expressions one is making. And also people may say one thing (out of politeness for example) but think a completely different one which then could be expressed at their face, so you might tell someone they are angry because they look angry and they might deny it and then the question is does that mean you are bad at reading faces or that the other person just doesn't want to admit they are angry.

what a stupid suggestion is "challenge your friends"? (in this instance)

5/10, I would not be able to get it if they're weren't answers on the bottom. They all looked the same to me.

I got 5/10...
That was tricky haha!

6/10, and that's after studying character animation.

Sure, I can read them! i just have expression dyslexia!!


LOL ! !! AKA - I am usually very wrong about what I think a person is expressing. I tend to laugh thinking someone is making a joke when they are mad at me. Oh well. I also tend to think someone is mad if they are smiling at me or silently listening. It is very confusing most of the time.

4/10

When I was tested I did very badly at this.