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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2015 - 11 - 28 - ID#3umajf
4
Do blind people make the same facial expressions as seeing people? (self.Blind)
submitted 7y ago by idiotsloveboxes
I think we've all heard the nature vs nurture debates of human behavior. Let's look at in the context of the communications of blind people.

When a seeing person encounters surprise, they usually express that with wide eyes & raised eyebrows. Smell a disgusting odor, scrunch up the nose & mouth and squint the eyes. Feeling puzzled or searching for an answer, the eyes roll around & the mouth opens hangs open. Etc.

Do people who have been blind their entire lives express emotions the same way? Do those who would have no visual context for a smile and a frown display them without prompting? Or do they have completely different catalog of communications?

I know not all gestures & expressions are the same in every culture, like raised may have different connotations across the world. But there are some universals. A smile is generally the same everywhere.
fastfinge 3 points
As far as I know, my facial gestures and body language are exactly the same as everyone else, without any lessons or anything. The only exceptions are that while I can smile naturally, I can't seem to smile for a camera; I just have to think of something happy, and then I smile, whereas if I try and smile on command, I have no idea what to do with my face. Also, I can't catch someone's eye from across the room, for obvious reasons. Lastly, I never ever wave, and rarely point. But I don't think that has anything to do with nature vs nurture...waving just feels really strange to do, for me, and I'm never quite sure if I'm doing it properly and in the right direction at the right person and if they're even looking. If that's a thing they teach children to do, I apparently missed that class, and as a 27 year old man I don't feel like asking at this late stage. I can get buy perfectly without waving greetings and farewells at people. And I rarely point because it's rare that I know exactly where something is with enough accuracy to point at it. Plus, if someone else points at something, it doesn't help me, so when I'm trying to communicate with someone else, it doesn't often occur to me as a method of communication. Describing the exact location of what I'm talking about just feels more natural to me.
bhmode 1 points 7y ago
They've actually done sports studies that show regardless of sight people celebrate a big win the same way no matter the situation. Everyone seems to throw their hands up and make themselves look bigger than they are. I believe most people have the same expression genetically, at least in what I've found as a sighted person.
johnnytai 1 points
Blind people tend to be more expressionless and won't have as wide a range as expression as sighted peers unless taught from a young age to practice certain facial expressions. When you have sight, you learn a lot of these unspoken rules as you grow up simply by watching and copying, those of us who are blind miss a lot of those visual hints and thus won't know about them unless told. This is also why a lot of blind people can seem distant or unfriendly at first sight because we're not smiling a lot unless we know there's something to smile at- otherwise if you just sit around smiling at nothing you look like a retard on top of being blind lol.
domin007 1 points
I think in general, you will express the big emotions the same as a person who has normal vision. However, some people with visual impairments may have conditions that effect the muscles in their eyes and therefore, may not have all the subtle movements. In addition, you don't get that feedback from others if you are completely blind.

Ex 1: I'm visually impaired with astigmatism. My eyes cannot focus for a long time on an object and typically shoot out to the sides a bit. I do try to look at people who are talking to me in order to look attentive but I just can't keep my eyes on a thing.

Ex 2: One of our family friends who can only see light and shadows will make random facial expressions over a conversation. While a lot of us have a blank face for when we don't feel strong emotions, he (as well as a few other low-vision individuals I know) will show more extreme facial expressions even during a no-nonsense conversation. This is probably due to not getting those social cues that tell us that we need to look a certain way for people. I guess the best way to describe it is a bit like how the face of a toddler changes when you talk to them. They often move their mouths/facial muscles in a way that I'm guessing is for sensory stimulation but the behavior eventually dies out.
Unuhi 1 points
Most natural emotions seem to be the same.
Happiness, joy, anger, disguest etc. That's at least wjat my therapist told me - fortunatelt I'm not her only VI client.

But there is a lot of place for variation as some faces are expressed only in some cultures. And in some cultures you are supposed to have a happy, smiling face all the time (US) whereas in some other cultures a blank face is the normal.
I also think that "rolleyes" is a thing they only do in US (and where the same culture is strong) because I don't remember ever having seen that when I grew up (with what I could see, at least I'd have caught the eyes at short range)
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