Affect Expression During Social and Non-Social Contexts in Autistic Young Adults

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Social Science

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by social interaction challenges.
• Previous research on affective expressivity in autistic adults is inconsistent.
• Understanding emotional responses in social contexts is crucial for autistic individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate affective expressivity differences between autistic young adults and general population (GP) controls.
• To examine responses to a mild social stressor task in an ecologically valid context.
• To clarify the nature of emotional expression during social engagement and disengagement.

Main Methods:

• A novel social stress task was administered to young adults diagnosed with ASD (n=18) and non-autistic controls (n=17).
• Facial affect (valence and intensity) was coded across observational episodes involving social interaction.
• Participants' mean age was 21.5 years.

Main Results:

• Autistic adults exhibited overall attenuated affective expressivity compared to controls.
• The primary difference was in the quantity of affective expression, not necessarily valence.
• Autistic individuals showed a higher proportion of neutral and lower proportion of positive affect displays during social engagement.

Conclusions:

• Friendly social interactions may not be inherently aversive to autistic individuals.
• Autistic adults may display muted positive affect in non-threatening social situations.
• Findings align with previous research indicating reduced expressivity in autistic individuals within social contexts.