Beschwerden beim Augenkontakt treten nicht nur bei Personen mit der Diagnose Autismus auf, sondern hängen mit autistischen Merkmalen zusammen, die in der Bevölkerung vorkommen. Während dieses soziale Unbehagen bei Menschen mit höheren autistischen Merkmalen häufig vorkommt, ist es nicht die direkte Ursache für Schwierigkeiten beim Erkennen von Gesichtsausdrücken.
Eye contact discomfort does not explain slower emotion recognition in autistic individuals
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Eye contact discomfort does not explain slower emotion recognition in autistic individuals
Recent findings published in the journal Emotion suggest that the **discomfort associated with making eye contact is not exclusive to individuals with a clinical autism diagnosis but scales with autistic traits found in the general population**. The research team discovered that **while this social unease is common among those with higher levels of autistic traits, it does not appear to be the direct cause of difficulties in recognizing facial expressions**.
The data revealed clear associations between personality traits and social comfort. Participants who scored higher on the scale for autistic traits were more likely to report finding eye contact unpleasant. This supports the idea that social gaze aversion is a continuous trait in the population.
The study also identified an independent link between alexithymia and eye gaze discomfort. Individuals who struggle to understand their own internal emotional states also tend to find mutual gaze difficult. While these two traits often overlap, the statistical analysis showed that alexithymia predicts discomfort on its own.
A particularly revealing finding emerged regarding the coping strategies participants employed. The researchers asked individuals how they handled the discomfort of looking someone in the eye. The responses indicated that people with high autistic traits tend to look at other parts of the face, such as the mouth or nose.
In contrast, those with high levels of alexithymia were more likely to look away from the face entirely. They might look at the floor or in another direction. This suggests that while the symptom of gaze avoidance looks similar from the outside, the internal mechanism or coping strategy differs depending on the underlying trait.
When analyzing the performance on the Emotion Labeling Task, the researchers found no statistically significant difference in accuracy based on autistic traits. Participants with higher levels of these traits were just as capable of correctly identifying the emotions as their peers. This contrasts with some previous literature that found deficits in emotion recognition accuracy.
However, the results did show a difference in processing speed. Participants with higher levels of autistic traits took longer to identify the emotions. Similarly, those with higher levels of prosopagnosia, or difficulty recognizing identities, also demonstrated slower reaction times.
The researchers then performed a mediation analysis to see if the eye gaze discomfort explained this slower processing. The hypothesis was that discomfort might cause people to look away or avoid the eyes, which would then slow down their ability to read the emotion. The data did not support this hypothesis.
Eye gaze discomfort was not a statistically significant predictor of the reaction time on the emotion task. This implies that the discomfort one feels about eye contact and the cognitive speed of recognizing an emotion are likely separate issues. The slower processing speed associated with autistic traits seems to stem from a different cognitive mechanism than the emotional or sensory aversion to gaze.
The study also explored sensory sensitivity. The researchers hypothesized that general sensory over-responsiveness might drive the discomfort with eye contact. However, the analysis did not find a strong link between general sensory sensitivity scores and the specific report of eye gaze discomfort.
These findings suggest that the difficulty autistic individuals face with emotion recognition may be more about processing efficiency than a lack of visual input due to avoidance. It challenges the assumption that simply training individuals to make more eye contact would automatically improve their ability to read emotions.
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Femo0001625
Someone smarter than me give me a Cole’s notes version of this so I can have an awkward conversation with my sister about my nephew.
I think it was adhd for me. I simply could not focus on what anyone had to say to me.
I didn’t realize psychiatrists thought this before. Wow
that does make me wonder if having eye contact problems is really an autism thing then. I know anecdotes dont mean much but I do have autism but dont have eye contact problems.
I feel like there are forms of nonverbal communication with eye movements though. For example, eye rolling, squinting, etc. When these things happen in a conversation, it’s very clear nonverbal communication that you could miss if you’re looking off to the side.
I’m not disagreeing with the research at all here, just acknowledging that some nonverbal communication can be missed without eye contact.
Duhhh.
Avoiding eye contact is trying to maintain the social mask.
I’m not a very confident person, but can be if I try. The best tip for this came from the TV show, *The Americans* when Phillip said that if you need to look at someone in the eye, but are shy, just focus on the tip of their nose … same effect.
What is the most common causes of this discomfort?
I was a very introverted personality as a kid and in some ways I still am but I’m putting a lot of effort into getting out of my comfort zone. Prolonged eye contact is definitely a fun one to do now, people appreciate when it when you appear to give them your full attention…and if you’re talking to someone you find attractive its like… pure oxygen almost.
I thought it was lack of mirror neurons
It’s not a checkbox.
Also, we can recognize facial expressions just fine. It’s the words that don’t align up with their faces and/or actions.
Seems flawed, low eye-contact may not be the *sole* cause of trouble recognizing facial expressions, but it’s awfully hard to read something you aren’t looking at.
Like a study that says „Not looking at scientific articles is not the only reason people fail to understand them!“, maybe not the *only* reason, but it sure doesn’t help.
I have eye contact issues with my Autism, but I can generally read people just fine by their expressions or body language for the most part. It’s just that eye contact has this strange innate, almost instinctual uncomfortability most of the time.
Seems to be some sort of memory issue for me personally.
If I practice at memorizing the face + name, eventually it will stick but it can be forgotten just as easily. Much like learning something from your college class on a flash card.
If anyone has a way to improve this, I would greatly appreciate it.
im neurodivergent, some autistic people can in fact get super good at recognizing facial expressions because they grew up in environments where they needed to do this for their own safety. I get confused about social queues though, they make almost no sense to me sometimes.
Emotions are the reason we avoid eye contact.