The differential impact of autistic traits on implicit and explicit approach-avoidance tendencies toward social and...

Autistic traits are associated with atypical social behaviors, particularly in approach-avoidance tendencies. However, the differential impact of these traits on responses to social versus non-social stimuli, and the variation of these effects across implicit and explicit tasks, remains unclear. We investigated these influences using an Implicit Association Approach-Avoidance Task (IAAT) and an Explicit Rating Approach-Avoidance Task (EAAT) in two studies (N1 = 160, N2 = 315). Participants evaluated positive and negative social stimuli (faces in both studies) and non-social stimuli (objects in Study 2). Across all participants, we observed consistent approach-positive and avoid-negative tendencies. For social stimuli, higher autistic traits were associated with weaker implicit approach-avoidance associations and lower explicit approach ratings for happy faces, but did not affect avoidance ratings for angry faces. For non-social stimuli, autistic traits only influenced explicit ratings for positive objects. These findings suggest that autistic traits are associated with attenuated automatic approach-avoidance tendencies toward social stimuli and partially influence deliberate ones, while their effects on non-social stimuli are not pronounced. This pattern highlights altered automatic processing and broader motivational differences, offering insight into social engagement patterns in autism.