Facial First Impressions of Neurotypical Adults with Varying Degrees of Autistic Traits

Background:

Recent studies suggest that there are structural differences in facial morphology that are related to ASD and autistic traits in the general population. An extension of this research is the study of facial first impressions formed by people around autistic individuals. Facial first impressions are typically formed quickly and intuitively, and they tend to influence the quality of social interactions. Several studies found that neurotypical individuals consistently formed less favourable first impressions of autistic persons compared to those of non-autistic individuals. At present, it is unclear whether the relationship between ASD and negative first impression extends to neurotypical individuals with different degrees of autistic traits.

Objectives:

The present study aims to examine whether facial first impression ratings of neurotypical adults vary according to levels of autistic traits.

Methods:

Stimulus Participants

A total of 1,995 undergraduate students completed the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ). Students aged between 18 and 25 yrs, and with an AQ score that fell in the bottom, middle and top 15% of the distribution were invited to participate further in this study. Fifty-four Caucasian men and 54 Caucasian women had their facial photographs taken under standardised conditions (e.g., neutral facial expressions, make-up free).

Raters

An additional group of 53 raters (mean age = 20.6 yrs; 38 females) were recruited to provide first impression ratings on a 10-point slider scale in response to four items: (1) Social: How likely is it that this person is socially awkward? (2) Get Along: How likely is it that this person gets along well with others? (3) Hang Out: How likely is it that you would hang out with this person in your free time? (4) Start Conversation: How likely is it that you would start a conversation with this person?

Results:

For women, repeated measures ANOVA revealed that relative to those who scored low on the AQ, women with high AQ scores consistently received less favourable first impression rating across all four items—Social: F(2,104) = 24.6, p < .001, η_p² =.32; Get Along: F(2,104) = 23.8, p < .001, η_p²=.31; Hang Out: F(2,104) = 35.8, p < .001, η_p²=.41; Start Conversation: F(2,104) = 25.8, p < .001, η_p²=.33.

In contrast, compared to men with low AQ, men with high AQ scores consistently received more favourable first impression ratings across the four items: Social: F(2,104) = 4.4, p = .002, η_p²=.08; Get Along: F(2,104) = 31.7, p < .001, η_p²=.38; Hang Out: F(2,104) = 26.8, p < .001, η_p²=.34; Start Conversation: F(2,104) = 12.0, p < .001, η_p²=.19.

Conclusions:

The current findings suggest that increased autistic traits are related to less favourable first impressions in women but more favourable first impressions in men. Our lab group has previously published a study reporting increased facial masculinity in high-AQ women and reduced facial masculinity in high-AQ men (Gilani et al.,2015). Taken together, these findings imply that more masculinised facial structures in high-AQ women may be linked to less favourable impressions formed while less masculinised structures in high-AQ men may be associated with more favourable first impressions.