Facial Affect Differences in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults Across Contexts and Their Relationship to First-Impression Formation
Sarah Foster, Desiree R. Jones, Amy E. Pinkham, Noah J. Sasson
Abstract
Background: Autistic people often receive unfavorable first impressions from non-autistic people, likely because of stigma related to divergent social presentations and expressive behaviors. Although facial expressivity influences first impressions in the general population, no research has examined whether expressivity differences in autism relate to the formation of first impressions by non-autistic people. It is also unclear whether facial expressivity in autism varies depending upon contextual demands and whether this affects first impressions. Methods: We video-recorded 21 autistic and 21 non-autistic adults in two contexts, interviewing for their ideal job and discussing a personal interest, and quantified the percentage of video frames displaying positive, neutral, and negative facial affect using iMotions software. We also compared facial affect between the autistic and non-autistic groups within and between contexts. Later, 335 non-autistic undergraduates rated participants using the First Impression Scale to assess whether impressions were modulated by context and showed associations with facial expressivity. Results: Findings demonstrated that autistic and non-autistic adults differed in overall emotional expressivity, with non-autistic participants displaying more positive affect at a trend-level than autistic participants. Autistic adults also received less favorable first impressions, and these showed some correspondence with their emotional expressivity. For example, their displays of negative affect were moderately to strongly related to worse impressions in the job interview context, a pattern not found to the same degree for non-autistic participants. Impressions of autistic participants also improved more than for non-autistic ones when talking about a personal interest compared with the job interview context, and when their diagnosis was disclosed to observers. Discussion: Collectively, these findings indicate that autistic people demonstrate divergent facial emotional expressivity that relates to the less favorable impressions they receive from non-autistic observers. Context and diagnostic disclosure also affect how autistic people are perceived. Community Brief: The results may be used to inform non-autistic people of their biases toward the expressive differences of autistic adults in personal and professional contexts to help minimize discrimination and exclusion.