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Face awareness

Ken

Ken

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I saw this website about autistic and non-autistic face differences for different emotions.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-autistic-differ-anger-happiness-sadness.html

I have watched it over and over, but I am unable to distinguish any significant differences in any of the avatars. Maybe a little in the thermal avatars, but that's pretty subtle.

I don't know if that's just me or what. I do know that I suffer social blindness, but I don't know if that prevents me from seeing the differences in the avatars.

Can any of you see the differences?
 
Ken said:
Can any of you see the differences?
Click to expand...
I'm someone very good with facial expressions and body language, but you can't imitate that very well with cartoons. I also don't see any differences in them, although I only looked at the first one.
 
I'm 90% sure there is no difference in the pictures. 🤔 Maybe some tiny differences but so small that they make no difference.
 
I can see differences in the images, but they're not good images.

For example ASD's are well known (with good reason) for not coordinating the muscles around their eyes with the muscles around their mouths.

The images don't show the eye muscles directly, which removes a lot of information (IMO this is a good part of why cartoons aren't good for this, as per Outdated's comment above).

@Ken
I can unwrap the three pix for you if you really want, but start here:

Angry: Eyebrow line
Happy: Mouth size
Sad: Eye size

IMO there's too much information missing from the images for them to be used to help any ASD learn to recognize someone's feelings from their face.
 
Ken said:
I saw this website about autistic and non-autistic face differences for different emotions.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-autistic-differ-anger-happiness-sadness.html

I have watched it over and over, but I am unable to distinguish any significant differences in any of the avatars. Maybe a little in the thermal avatars, but that's pretty subtle.

I don't know if that's just me or what. I do know that I suffer social blindness, but I don't know if that prevents me from seeing the differences in the avatars.

Can any of you see the differences?
Click to expand...
... and I think this was the broader point of the full article. Autistics tend to have less activation of their facial muscles in response to emotional states... which makes us more difficult to "read" by neurotypicals...as well as fellow autistics, leading to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Sure, I can understand strong emotional states... anger, grief, love... but all that subtle stuff... no way... totally clueless.

There are other articles related to "Do You Look Autistic?" They too, have identified these facial muscle differences. Part of the reason I absolutely cringe when I have my photo taken or am on video... I don't have an expressive face. People misinterpret and misunderstand how I am feeling all the time... and they don't believe me when I say, "You can't rely upon my facial expressions to reflect how I am feeling." People get really confused by that and don't want to believe me... which may lead to trust issues with them.
 
Those avatars are awful. They already look nothing like what human beings look like. What an awful example.
 
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