Abstract
Non-autistic observers often interpret autistic emotional expressions more negatively, though it is unclear whether this reflects observer bias or genuine differences in autistic people’s emotional experience and expression. To examine this, 20 autistic and 20 non-autistic adults reported the intensity of their felt emotion while re-experiencing video-recorded events eliciting mild and strong happiness, sadness, and anger. A total of 379 non-autistic observers, half blind to diagnostic status, viewed the recordings and identified the emotion and its intensity. iMotions emotion recognition software also classified the emotional valence of the expressions. Overall, autistic and non-autistic participants reported comparable levels of felt emotion, although differences emerged in how their expressions were perceived. Observers more accurately identified happiness in non-autistic participants and sadness and anger in autistic participants. They also judged autistic participants as expressing sadness and anger more intensely. Informing observers of the diagnostic status of participants largely did not modulate effects. iMotions more often classified mild autistic expressions as neutral and mild non-autistic expressions as positive. Because observer and iMotion findings emerged despite autistic and non-autistic participants not differing in felt emotion, they suggest that non-autistic observers and emotion recognition algorithms differentially interpret authentic autistic and non-autistic emotional expressions, which may contribute to misinterpretations of autistic people.
Lay Abstract
Autistic people may express emotions in ways that differ from non-autistic people, and non-autistic people sometimes misinterpret them as flat, overly intense, or hard to read. This misunderstanding can affect how autistic people are judged in everyday life, including in job interviews, friendships, and other important situations. In this study, we wanted to know how well non-autistic people—and emotion recognition software—can identify emotions on the faces of autistic and non-autistic people when they are actually feeling emotion. To do this, autistic and non-autistic adults were videotaped while recounting personal experiences that made them feel mild and strong happiness, sadness, and anger. They rated how strongly they felt each emotion during the videotaping. Later, short video clips of their facial expressions were shown (without sound) to a large group of non-autistic viewers, who identified the emotion and rated its intensity. Some viewers were told whether the person in the video was autistic or not. We found that autistic and non-autistic people reported feeling emotions at comparable levels, but non-autistic viewers were better at recognizing happy expressions in non-autistic people compared to autistic people, and better at recognizing sad and angry expressions in autistic people compared to non-autistic people. Viewers tended to rate autistic expressions, especially sadness and anger, as more intense than those of non-autistic people, even though the computer software rated autistic expressions as more neutral compared to non-autistic participants. These results suggest that autistic people feel emotions just as deeply as non-autistic people, but differences in expressive style and non-autistic biases may lead to misinterpretation. These findings highlight the need for greater awareness of communication differences in autism and for reducing misinterpretations in how autistic people are perceived.
