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article on why people form opinions on your trustworthiness based on your face in less than a second.

Iain

I read an interesting article on the BBC about how people form an impression as to whether someone they meet is trustworthy in less than a second largely based on their face and then on their facial expressions.

This was prompted by the TV show Traitors for those of you who follow it.

I thought this seems particularly relevant to autists who often have facial expressions that seem a bit out of place compared to neurotypicals and who can struggle with eye contact and even fidgeting while talking to someone.

www.bbc.co.uk/.../idt-5543014d-9451-4cbc-a400-8160ced87196

On spotting liars or untrustworthy people:

“We all think that we’re able to spot a lie because we look for signs like sweating, looking away, blushing, fidgeting, or other bodily cues. But the truth is, these cues are incredibly context-dependent and not reliable indicators of deception at all,” he says. 

"Someone could be sweating or looking away simply because they’re nervous, shy, or anxious - not because they’re lying. Often, we misinterpret these signals because we expect them to mean dishonesty, when in reality, they’re just signs of discomfort or emotional arousal in a particular situation." 

The article covers how wrong most people get it, but it is still a subconcious decision made by their mind so isn't really something they have much control over.

I think it does explain why many of us get picked out as different and shunned from social groups unless we mask heavily.

  • I read an article a while back about the difference between what happens when NT people see a face to when Autistic people see one.

    "When (most) human beings see a face and socially engage with another human, whether it’s a stranger or loved one, ( they) get a hit of the feel-good chemicals oxytocin and dopamine. It’s fleeting and subconscious a lot of the time, but it reinforces (them) to seek out and enjoy that face again.

    This isn't the case for the majority of people with autism spectrum disorder. So why .. try to make (people) with autism fit into (a) “neurotypical” social world and follow (the) often complicated social rules?" 

    Source: https://theconversation.com/children-with-autism-shouldnt-be-forced-to-socialise-44585

    I wonder if this is related to NT and autistic people making different judgements about who to trust? Other experiments have shown that facial expressions of emotions are not read the same way, so may be this shows that "reading" faces by NTs and autistic people is like two different languages?

  • Thats interesting. I believed many years ago that I might be better than most people at working out who not to trust, long before I knew I was on the spectrum.

    Looking away, sweating, fidgeting or blushing have always appeared to me to be nervousness. What I have never trusted are those who never seem to be nervous or uncomfortable, as they are usually the ones that will con or mislead others. 

    I think it's true that we may be misread and misunderstood, due to the "group think" of neurotypical people, and that because we don't think that way, I think we don't make judgements about others in the same way.

  • Iain said:
    "Someone could be sweating or looking away simply because they’re nervous, shy, or anxious - not because they’re lying.

    I was relieved that this was made explicit.

    I wonder if Cat Burns was invited to participate in the show because she is autistic, or if it was incidental. She looks very cool and collected, yet she said she wasn’t underneath, and she did a bit of hand flapping on the wobbly bridge challenge.  

  • in reply to Stuart333

    A lot of social cues are cultural which would expain why people from other cultures are often seen as untrustworthy.

    It might be something in our Stone Age brains, were misreading a situation could be fatal.

  • It doesn't really say why, just that people do and it's hardwired and unreliable.