Autistic traits influence aesthetic judgments of abstract color works

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by atypicalities in both social and non-social behaviors, yet little is known about how autistic traits influence aesthetic judgments. This study investigated the impact of autism tendencies, measured by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), on aesthetic evaluations of abstract color works. We recruited 111 university students to rate the colorfulness of, and their liking for, images composed of geometric color shapes. The hues of these shapes were systematically varied in terms of both their perceptual distance and categorical membership. Results demonstrate that larger hue distances enhanced both colorfulness and liking ratings. Critically, higher AQ was associated with reduced liking for color combinations with larger perceptual distances and for those spanning different color categories. Furthermore, although AQ scores demonstrated an overall negative association with both colorfulness and liking ratings, the strength of this association was highly hue-dependent, peaking in purple-pink regions and diminishing to minimal levels in approximately yellow-green areas. Notably, the patterns of hue-dependent modulation differed between colorfulness and liking ratings. While colorfulness ratings showed a consistently negative relationship with AQ across hues, liking ratings displayed a biphasic pattern, transitioning from relatively enhanced preference in the green-cyan region to strongly reduced liking in the purple-pink region. It is suggested that autistic traits influence perceptual and affective dimensions of color experience through partially distinct mechanisms. These findings reveal the nuanced role of autistic traits in shaping aesthetic experience, highlighting dissociable effects on low-level perceptual processing versus higher-order aesthetic evaluation.