If you can't read facial expressions...

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I can see how their faces move, I can see many details on their faces that others don't always seem to see which is at least one reason why I cannot learn to spot facial expressions (too many details that I take in (autistic symptom) and inability to see the greater picture/to generalise (autistic symptom).

As a kid though, I saw people only in bits and pieces.

For me, I basically see a blur were the face should be. And this face-blindness is still with me when I'm watching a movie or television program. If any of the characters are dressed in similar attire, I can quickly become hard-pressed to figure out which blur belongs to which body.

I can see facial expressions but I don't know what they mean. I've learned some signals and signs, but I still can't read people because the expressions change quickly and I have to concentrate on other things like talking to them. Also, I rarely receive feedback on whether or not I've interpreted something correctly. I may think somebody is annoyed, but unless I say "You look annoyed" and they disagree, I'm not going to know if I was right, which makes it hard to learn. And one person's annoyed face is another person's concentration face.

When I was younger - like until I was 13 - I didn't even know how much a facial expression could convey. All I knew was that smile = happy, crying = sad, etc. I didn't know how bad I was at reading people because I didn't know how much there was to read. When I was around 9 or 10 I found out that people sometimes smiled when they weren't happy or being photographed, and that really threw me.

I see and read broad expressions fairly well, although I still misinterpret some of them. Quite often, though, more subtle expressions register to me as simply blank stares. It took me a long time to recognize that there actually were expressions there that other people could read and I just wasn't seeing.

The weird thing is, I don't have this problem with older television shows and movies. I think the actors must have had to exaggerate their expressions for film in a way that isn't done in real life. The same must not be true for the newer media, however. Now that digital media are being used more often, I'm seeing a lot of blank stares on TV, too.

Until I found out about AS I seriously thought that I was so much more intuitive than those around me, because they were unable to read peoples faces as well as me. Then I discovered that it was me that has absolutely no idea what a facial expression is showing

I had a go at the Baron Cohen test. The first time I took it I kept complaining that the correct answer was not represented in the multi choice. I got 8 correct and some of those were guesses. This explains so many of the problems that I have had in my life. I now ask a multitude of questions so that I fully understand the emotion of the person I am talking to

The problem is that they won't always tell you! Lots of people will try to be "nice" by saying that something doesn't bother them, or that they're not annoyed when they are. This always trips me up, because someone will actively say that they're OK with something when they're not, and at the same time, get pissed at me for not knowing!

I had the same problem. I kept wanting a none of the above selection.

I don't look at faces all that much. I can read people's body language pretty decent because that's what I usually look at during conversations. But when I'm observing another interaction either in real life or on TV I can read them pretty well, I analyse their expressions and body language bit by bit. But when I'm interacting myself I do miss alot of the expressions because I'm looking else where or focusing on what the other person is saying.
so to sum it all up, observing-good, taking part-bad.

For me, it goes beyond not being able to read faces. I simply don't look at their faces much, and if I do.. I don't actually SEE anything really. I don't see and remember typical information other people see. I only see what stands out to me if I happen to look. Were they horribly ugly? A gigantic mole on their face? Did they have food on their face? I don't see normal things like eye color, face shape, hair color, expression.. unless its odd to me.

But my visual memory is poor, so that probably doesn't apply to most aspies here.

I found that out in my early thirties…from seeing the multi-choice answers to an online face expression test. I was more than somewhat surprised by these possible answers.


I thought the same thing when I took that one too.

Me too.

I can see overt and obtuse smiles, frowns, laughing, crying and angry faces (unfortunately for...someone, I laugh at the latter; fun times with teachers...).

I can't see anything else, and the small nuances in each one just totally fly over my head (see: there's a heap of different type of smiles, and I can't differentiate between them at all).

i suppose i will be serious and say what i think.

i have not much experience with "facial expressions" because i do not often look at people's faces (but rarely, i do).

i do not see how a face can "express" something unless it is talking.

i have mild "prosopagnosia", and i have trouble remembering what people look like after they are gone. i can recognize them when i see them again, but when they are gone, i can not remember accurately what their face looks like.

because i am not interested in people's faces, i have not developed an understanding of what they should look like when they are stretched out of shape by some emotion.

i can surmise people's expressions (if i see them) when it is in an obvious context. like if a game show contestant wins first prize on TV, then i understand their facial expression is apt for the context (i do watch peoples faces on TV but they are usually fake anyway).

but if i do not know the context within which someone is pulling a facial expression, then i can not determine what expression it is.

i was told that when i was small, i was watching a scene in a TV show where a woman was on the telephone and learned her son had been killed. then she dropped the handle and cried convulsively. i apparrently laughed along with her and i thought she was having fun. (i do not remember it myself, but i was told about it being a worrying event according to my parents).

even now, if i was shown pictures of various facial expressions in unexplained situations, i could not determine their meaning.

the squished facial expression of "laughing heartily" looks like "being electrocuted" which looks like "weeping hysterically (sans the tears)" which looks like "extreme fright" which looks like "elation".


a persons face can not tell me a story unless their mouths are saying words.


there was an old man who my father knew, who's face i was fascinated with when i was about 8.

he had so many wrinkles, that whenever he pulled an expression, it was a new puzzle to look for patterns in. his wrinkles were deep and crisscrossed, and every time he even opened his mouth, i saw a lattice of wrinkled folds stretch out and then bunch up again with the rhythm of his speech.

his adams apple rose and fell in his old loose neck also with every word he said.
i could not take my eyes off him, and he never knew why i was fascinated with him.

when he laughed, it was astounding to see the lattice work of his face fold neatly into all it's imperfections.

that is all i got from him, but he seemed to think i was on his "wavelength" because he liked me to watch him because i was not known to watch anyone, and he felt special.

if only he had known what i was seeing, he may not have felt so nice about my attention.

these days, i am not interested in faces and i do not bother much to look at any.
i will look at the floor while i listen, but that is as far as i can go.

My wife sometimes does this. I can tell that something is wrong, but I don't know what. I will ask her what is wrong, and she will say, "Nothing." I will do this several times, nagging her to actually tell me what's wrong, and then eventually it comes out and we both feel better.

She knows she can't fool me, so why does she keep trying to? Am I supposed to just intuitively figure out why she is upset about something?

I don't experience this at all. Face reading is one of my strengths. But I think I can kind of relate to how this might make you feel. Your weakness is in nonverbal communication. Mine is in verbal communication. Sometimes, fortunately not all the time, more often with electronically reproduced speech, like for instance in movie theaters, it will sound to me like the person has suddenly launched into Swahili or something, mid sentence for no appearant reason. And during this time I am clueless what he is saying because it all sounds like gibberish to me, and I am often unaware while this is happening that everyone else in the room is still hearing him just fine in English. I will be waiting patiently for him to stop and translate what he was saying in that foreign language when suddenly the room bursts into laughter, and I realize what has really been happening.

If she's anything like me, she's probably trying to convince herself that whatever is bothering her really is nothing and that she shouldn't be feeling bent out of shape over it. The only problem is, it really is bothering her and denying it doesn't just make it go away. Then the stress builds up and it all comes boiling out. I do this all the time. It drove my husband nuts.