Influence of autistic traits and communication role on eye contact behavior during face-to-face interaction

Eye contact is a central component in face-to-face interactions. It is important in structuring communicative exchanges and offers critical insights into others' interests and intentions. To better understand eye contact in face-to-face interactions, we applied a novel, non-intrusive deep-learning-based dual-camera system and investigated associations between eye contact and autistic traits as well as self-reported eye contact discomfort during a referential communication task, where participants and the experimenter had to guess, in turn, a word known by the other individual. Corroborating previous research, we found that participants' eye gaze and mutual eye contact were inversely related to autistic traits. In addition, our findings revealed different behaviors depending on the role in the dyad: listening and guessing were associated with increased eye contact compared with describing words. In the listening and guessing condition, only a subgroup who reported eye contact discomfort had a lower amount of eye gaze and eye contact. When describing words, higher autistic traits were associated with reduced eye gaze and eye contact. Our data indicate that eye contact is inversely associated with autistic traits when describing words, and that eye gaze is modulated by the communicative role in a conversation.