Research on Identifying Facial Emotional Expressions May Alter How We See Autism
There is a widespread belief that autistic people are poor at recognizing the emotions of others and have little insight into how effectively they do so.
However, a recent Australian study has demonstrated that individuals with autism are just slightly less accurate than their non-autistic peers at recognizing facial expressions of emotion.
Recent research shows we may need to reevaluate widely held beliefs that adults with autism experience difficulties with social emotion recognition and have little insight into their processing of other people’s facial expressions. The findings were recently published in the journal Autism Research.
In a Flinders University study, 63 individuals with autism and 67 non-autistic adults (with IQs ranging from 85 to 143) took part in three 5-hour sessions comparing their identification of 12 human facial emotion expressions such as anger and sadness.
During her Ph.D., Dr. Marie Georgopoulos gathered a broad range of data, with later reanalyses by the research team serving as the foundation for a series of research papers.
Social Difficulties in Certain Contexts
The results could mean social difficulties linked with autism may actually reflect differences that only become apparent in certain social interactions or high-pressure scenarios, challenging the perspective that autistic adults can’t adequately read facial emotion expressions.
Study co-author and Matthew Flinders Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Neil Brewer, says by deploying a wide array of emotions, presented in a variety of different ways, this study suggests that autistic individuals are, on average, only slightly less accurate but at the same time somewhat slower when classifying others’ emotions.
“These findings challenge the notion that adults with autism are more likely to be overwhelmed by increasingly dynamic or complex emotional stimuli and to experience difficulties recognizing specific emotions.”
Small Subgroup Shows Noticeable Differences
There was considerable overlap in performance between the two groups, with only a very small subgroup of autistic individuals performing at levels below that of their non-autistic peers.
The differences between groups were consistent regardless of how emotions were presented, the nature of the response required, or the particular emotion being looked at.
The research also showed that while there was considerable variability in terms of individuals’ insight into their interpretation of others’ emotions, there was no evidence of any differences between the autistic and non-autistic samples.
“The sophisticated methodologies used in these studies not only help refine our understanding of emotion processing in autism but also provide further demonstrations of hitherto unacknowledged capabilities of autistic individuals.”
“Further advances will likely require us to tap behaviors associated with emotion recognition and reactions to others’ emotions in real-life interactions or perhaps in virtual reality settings.”
Reference: “Facing up to others’ emotions: No evidence of autism-related deficits in metacognitive awareness of emotion recognition” by Neil Brewer, Carmen A. Lucas, Marie Antonia Georgopoulos and Robyn L. Young, 7 July 2022, Autism Research.
DOI: 10.1002/aur.2781
The study was funded by Flinders University.
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27 Comments
Probably just distracted. We often have other issues on our mind..
As an Occupational Therapist, I would argue that Autistic persons recognize what is actually being conveyed by the person, rather than accepting the social mask they present. This is upsetting to folks who rely on others to accept what they try to present, rather than seeing beyond it. Most of the person’s with Autism that I work with perceive more stimuli, not less.
I agree with Deb Eckert.
I’m an autistic adult, and I wanted to point out that we’ve been trying to tell the scientific community these things for decades. We are the experts of our own lived experiences, and we’ve been systematically left out of the conversation about our own lives because we’re presumed incompetent by the academic/scientific community despite the fact that so many of us are in those communities.
I’m also curious about several things: First, why isn’t there more transparency into why these types of studies are conducted? I’m reluctant to participate in any study which doesn’t specify its aims or reasons for existing. I don’t wish to inadvertently support eugenics-adjacent work. What I mean is, typically, the scientific community is still doing research for “a cure” rather than to leverage more support and societal acceptance of our neurotype.
Also, this sample size is miniscule, and that could likely be because autistic adults are less likely to be willing to participate in studies that don’t clearly state their aims.
Im an autistic adult and while my autistic partner is worse than average at this, he also Seems to have some level of face blindness, as many autistics do. I actually think i am at the other extreme and i pick up the most subtle differences in expression, even more than neurotypicals
There’s more than “can and can’t” in every level of life. I refer to the way NTs think as linear. They have to be taught different perspectives whereas we NDs just seem to have that basic concept ingrained in our psyches. As such, when NTs evaluate us, their perspective is linear falling in a “one or the other” category.
I think the other comments touched on this. It’s not that “we can’t”; it’s that there’s face blindness, reading other cues NTs don’t typically pick up on so we are ignoring their expressions as we sense it’s a cover, other thoughts in the forefront keeping our main focus,etc.
When we look at others, we see a reflection of who we are. If you think in a linear fashion, you perceive in a linear fashion. If you think in an interconnected fashion, you perceive in an interconnected fashion.
It’s hard to explain how there’s actually trillions of roads to those who can only see two; especially when you need them to see how those roads connect to understand.
New theories discuss how the social deficits we sometimes experience may be not an impairment in reading body language (I agree that we often read between the lines and see the intentions underneath more accurately than NT’s) but in prediction because we cannot always quickly process the interaction that is happening and how it feels to the other person/how we are coming across to him/her and predict how the individual will respond. Very interesting idea. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1416797111
As the grandmother of a young adult with autism and retired worker in the field of developmental disabilities, I greatly appreciate the previous comments and self advocacy and disclosure..
I agree with all previous comments and wish to add this: the scientific community is only just beginning to recognize that autistic people are not uniquely incapable of socializing, but rather that autistic people socialize more adeptly with other autistics, and that on the flip side ALLISTIC people socialize more adeptly with other ALLISTICS. The social “disability” is comparable on either side when intermixed. Then I ask, whose expressions were participants analyzing, autistics or allistics? I’m curious what difference that might make.
I think a lot of the time those of us on the spectrum are so used to masking, we recognize that all people are masking to some degree much of the time. The “delay” in reporting what emotion someone is expressing is in part to us trying to sus out what the person is *actually * feeling vrs what they are attempting to *present* they are feeling. This is why when you find someone who isn’t masking and who doesn’t need you to mask yourself, it is so much easier. Half the amount of social energy is required to interact with that person and it’s easy. Why don’t these studies ask autistic people what we think of things instead of just observing us through a neurotypical lense and trying to fit what we are doing into that framework? Not all of us can communicate, but many of us can. Why not just ask us?
As an autistic adult with an autistic husband and children, I agree with all previous comments and want to state that I LOVE the comments given by other autistic adults. I love how much more our voices are being heard but especially USED with out fear 💪
Deb Eckert, I think you are right on the money. You are the first person to put in to words what my own experience has been. And the problem comes in when the high functioning autistic responds to what they are perceiving beyond the mask. Now I understand why so many social interactions go haywire. Your comment was helpful!
I was told that I can’t be autistic because I can read emotions and nonverbal communication. By a provider claiming to specialize in autism. Apparently the conflation of autism and alexithymia is still prevalent. I hope the discourse is changing as the science begins to better include non-cisgender white boys as the research standard. I recognize emotions too well. I just don’t always understand why it is there or whether I am expected to act on it or pretend not to notice it.
A lot
Love all the like minded abby-normal people. I understand fully. Just wish it is not so hard to be accepted in the workplace because different. I am profoundly deaf, lip-read and fully mainstreamed. I work as a Baker and have a good educational background and experience. Yet I fail to meet corporate social standards for their in the box thinking. Fun fun. Happy thoughts to all and keep proving the ” normals” wrong. They hate that. Lol
I am autistic – I have the problem where I can see what the person is really feeling instead of what they want me to see but I cannot recognize my own family doctor if he’s not in his office!
Living with autism the stigma from the hospitals and mental health prefessionals is so sad and that college’s and universities are refusing us a chance for education
As a parent of autistic child, why society doesn’t ask autistic adults about this things, the adults with autism are the biggest experts in autism why can’t we learn from them they are the once feeling autism not us no matter how smart scientists might be doesnt make them experts on autism no one knows how people with autism feel and see but the person with autism I just wish their were ways that families that have kids with autism was able to communicate with autistic adults to have an understanding about autism and learn from them coping skills and how to deal with behavioral issues with our kids we should be learning from autistic adults not from people who assume that they know autism.
Im also glad to see so many people with autism replying to this article I totally i agree with all of y’all comments I really feel like we all gotta stand together and help non autistic people understand autism better because people with autism are also very intelligent and smart loving people.
I have this disability with the spectrum. I’ve learned to master my other six senses in order to try an figure out what other are feeling. This is interesting but please make sure with comments you have both genders so we are not having a one sided conversation . That what I struggle with more this world become more a one sided conversation an it’s not stimulating me .
Root causes are the realm of functional medicine, not traditional AMA pharmaceutical suppression therapy. That said, human toxicity pathways and genome vulnerability matters bigly in human neurotransmitter balance. Dirty Genes is a great read.
These are some really great comments. I hope these people are heard! We need more, better, and better oriented research.
So, I’m not autistic, probably, but I’m on the spectrum. I’d say it’s true that I can recognize people’s emotions, but, only when that’s specifically what I’m trying to do (which is almost never during a normal conversation, I’m usually more worried about what others are thinking of me, if anything, and how to act so as not to upset them). In most interactions, details elude me. Details such as facial expressions. If someone asked me to look at facial expressions and identify them, however, then that’s academic, of course I can do it.
So. If I’m as like autistic folks as it seems, then my assumption is that it’s not that folks with autism can’t recognize others emotions, it’s that they normally don’t. In order to do so would require multitasking, which, I know I’m personally pretty bad at.
Autistic genetics allow us to retain our sense of synesthesia, a natural perception that sees behind social veils. This is why animals have heightened senses too and why neurotypical people rely on words to understand what the person wants to convey. We just see more than that and learned to ignore the facades because they are often dangerous. If you just take people at their word you’ll get manipulated.
I wish that people were more trustworthy but eugenics and genocide is too common in our human evolution.
Do IQs below 85 have different results? My son has classic autism (doctor’s words, not mine) and now at 18 has been assigned an IQ of 45. He has a near photographic memory for directions and other facts, so this low score was surprising. At any rate, I do think he understands facial expressions and emotional cues, sometimes he just doesn’t know the right way to respond to them. But he does know when I’m sad or upset and tries to make me feel better by rubbing my back or bringing me water. I think it’s just so hard to identify and catalog the differences of autistic brains, each one, each person with one, is just so unique.
As the mother of an Autistic Adult I am so impressed and encouraged by how each of you are using your words and voices. It is hard to know if my son antisocial because of fear or if it is simply cause it’s his choice?
I have two teen boys with autism. One stays in his own world, I say his own world like he isn’t paying attention to others only what’s Infront or around him at the time and likes staying to himself and away from people an noise. But if I laugh and smile with him and. Play he will laugh and smile back. If I speak to him serious he will get that I am serious and it’s not time To play.my other son is more curious they’re both nonverbal/ severe autism.he loves. People enjoys the Crowd he laughs and smiles too and smiles and laughs with me or when I blow him a kiss he will giggle. He has great sense of direction and loves electronics. He can tell if I’m mad or happy. Every person with autism is different it doesn’t mean they know less or they can’t perceive emotions. I’m sure they can, and it’s either they chose to or they choose not to cause it can be overwhelming.my thoughts/opinion as a mother .
As an adult who was recently diagnosed with autism (at age 41), my experience has been that I perceive the emotions of others and I will often take it on and feel it deeply myself. But, I am not able to express this very well (or at all at times) to others. So it may seem like I don’t understand the emotional cues even though I do.