Non‐autistic adults can recognize posed autistic facial expressions: Implications for internal representations of emotion

Abstract

Autistic people report that their emotional expressions are sometimes misunderstood by non-autistic people. One explanation for these misunderstandings could be that the two neurotypes have different internal representations of emotion: Perhaps they have different expectations about what a facial expression showing a particular emotion looks like. In three well-powered studies with non-autistic college students in the United States (total N = 632), we investigated this possibility. In Study 1, participants recognized most facial expressions posed by autistic individuals more accurately than those posed by non-autistic individuals. Study 2 showed that one reason the autistic expressions were recognized more accurately was because they were better and more intense examples of the intended expressions than the non-autistic expressions.In Study 3, we used a set of expressions created by autistic and non-autistic individuals who could see their faces as they made the expressions, which could allow them to explicitly match the expression they produced with their internal representation of that emotional expression. Here, neither autistic expressions nor non-autistic expressions were consistently recognized more accurately. In short, these findings suggest that differences in internal representations of what emotional expressions look like are unlikely to play a major role in explaining why non-autistic people sometimes misunderstand the emotions autistic people are experiencing. Lay SummaryAutistic people report that non-autistic people sometimes misunderstand what they are feeling. We investigated whether misunderstandings arise because the two neurotypes have different expectations about what emotional expressions look like. In three studies, we found no evidence for this possibility. Overall, nonautistic participants recognized autistic people's expressions at least as well as (and often better) than non-autistic people's expressions. Our findings suggest that the two neurotypes do not have different expectations about what emotional expressions look like. Other factors contribute to misunderstandings about emotion.

Mismatching expressions: Spatiotemporal and kinematic differences in autistic and non-autistic facial expressions

“…Indicating that they are doing different things with their facial features at different times. Such differences could, at least partially, explain why non-autistic individuals find it difficult to recognise the emotions of autistic people, and vice versa (e.g., Brewer et al, 2016;Love, 1993; though see Lampi et al, 2023).…”

“…Given the evidence from the body movement literature (e.g., Anzulewicz et al, 2016;Cook, Blakemore, & Press, 2013;Edey et al, 2016;Nobile et al, 2011;Torres & Denisova, 2016;Yang et al, 2014), we predicted that autistic participants would display significantly COMPARING AUTISTIC AND NON-AUTISTIC FACIAL EXPRESSIONS more jerky facial expressions than their non-autistic counterparts. We did not make any formal predictions regarding the magnitude of activation of facial landmarks since this evidence was highly mixed (e.g., Faso et al, 2015;Grossman et al, 2013;Lampi et al, 2023;Legiša, Messinger, Kermol, & Marlier, 2013;Loveland et al, 1994;Mathersul, McDonald, & Rushby, 2013;Oberman, Winkielman, & Ramachandran, 2009;Stagg et al, 2013;Yoshimura et al, 2015), and potentially confounded by alexithymia (see Trevisan, Bowering, &Birmingham, 2016 andKeating &Cook, 2020). Finally, in line with signal detection theory (McNicol, 2005) and previous findings (e.g., Keating, Ichijo & Cook, 2023;Keating & Cook, pre-print;Keating, Kraaijkamp & Cook, pre-print), we predicted that the precision and differentiation of participants' own productions would contribute to their ability to recognise others' facial expressions.…”

“…Autistic expressions are generally perceived to be less accurate (i.e., less socially congruous), lower in quality, and 'atypical' in appearance (see Keating & Cook, 2020;Trevisan et al, 2018), being 6 COMPARING AUTISTIC AND NON-AUTISTIC FACIAL EXPRESSIONS rated as odd, awkward, or mechanical by (non-autistic) observers (Faso, Sasson, & Pinkham, 2015;Grossman, Edelson, & Tager-Flusberg, 2013;Loveland et al, 1994;Macdonald et al, 1989). Studies have also obtained 'intensity' ratings, though findings are mixed with some reporting that autistic expressions are perceived to be more intense (e.g., Faso et al, 2015;Grossman et al, 2013;Lampi et al, 2023), and others less intense (Legiša, Messinger, Kermol, and Marlier, 2013;Loveland et al, 1994;Stagg et al, 2013;Yoshimura et al, 2015) than their non-autistic peers. These studies -in which non-autistic observers subjectively rate expressions -suggest that there is something different about facial expressions produced by autistic and non-autistic people.…”

“…Thus, it could be that differences in the subjective appearance of expressions reflect differences in overall facial morphology (the shape and structure of the face) rather than differences in facial movement per se. Such differences in facial morphology may underpin subjective ratings of autistic expressions as odd or exaggerated (Loveland et al, 1994;Faso et al, 2015;Grossman et al, 2013;Macdonald et al, 1989;Lampi et al, 2023), because the appearance of different features contributes to judgements of facial expressions (e.g., intensity judgements; see Diego-Mas et al, 2020). Thus, any studies comparing autistic and non-autistic facial expressions should thus aim to minimise the confounding influence of morphological differences.…”