Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today’s article explains, at least in part, why autistic people can have such trouble reading facial expressions. In Kindergarten or other early education, they teach that certain expressions mean certain things. Unfortunately, that is simply not how it works. The fact is, expressions are contextual. They don’t always mean the same thing.
Up to Interpretation
The fact is, expressions are complicated. People don’t simply swap between a palette of 8 basic expressions. If they did, most autistic people would have no issue learning those 8 expressions and then it would be metaphorical smooth sailing from then on.
No, the problem that instead of 8 basic expressions, there are dozens. They vary by the situation, by the person, and even by the culture. Because of all that variation, you have to use context to interpret any given expression. The better you understand the situation and know the person making the expression, the easier it is to figure out what the expression might mean.
Complicating matters, by the way, is how different autistic minds can be from neurotypical ones. When you go to interpret an expression in a situation, you’re performing predictive calculations using theory of mind. The more different you are from the person you’re trying to interpret, the harder that calculation is going to be.
Not Just Emotions
Adding to the difficulty of reading facial expressions, by the way? We’re taught that facial expressions are for conveying a person’s mood. This isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s not right either. Facial expressions also convey what we want people to see. Even if that’s a lie.
That’s actually something LENS and therapy have made possible for me. I can now lie with my face. That wasn’t possible before, which made things harder for me when it came to photography, formal occasions, interviews, and distant relatives. I can now choose to smile reasonably convincingly even if I’m feeling terrible. And often do, though my effectiveness at conveying the expression may be undermined by how bad I’m feeling.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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