Investigating the Relationship between Social Anxiety and Social Insight in Autistic and Neurotypical Adults, Using a Novel Experimental Task.

Background: Social anxiety is elevated amongst autistic adults. Despite the high prevalence rates, there is limited research exploring the cognitive mechanisms underpinning the development of social anxiety in autistic adults. Recent research has proposed that autistic individuals who show an enhanced awareness of their own social difficulties, termed social insight, may be at an increased risk of developing social anxiety. This enhanced social insight may bring to light the difficulties a person faces during social interactions, thus contributing towards increased anxiety of future social situations where these known difficulties may lead to a failure to interact with others. To date no research has explored the relationship between social insight and social anxiety at either a clinical or subclinical level. This is primarily due to the lack of robust experimental measures of social insight, compared to theory of mind or emotion recognition measures.

Objectives: In the present study, we developed a novel online dynamic video-based experimental task to measure social insight, called the Social Signals Task. Using our novel Social Signals Task, we aim to explore the relationship between social insight and social anxiety in autistic and neurotypical adults who experience varying degrees of social anxiety.

Methods: We employed a mixed experimental design using both cognitive tasks (Social Signals Task, word recognition task) and questionnaires (social anxiety, autistic traits, anxiety, depression, alexithymia and self-esteem). The Social Signals Task consists of 60 videos showing a listener in a conversational dialogue. Participants are asked to judge the non-verbal social cues of the person in the video across three dimensions 1) interest, 2) understanding and 3) agreement. Participants also rate their level of confidence in their response. The Social Signals Task measures an individual’s ability to recognise naturalistic social cues, as well as an individual’s awareness of their ability to recognise these social cues. A sample of 141 adults (81 autistic adults, Mean_age = 39.16) took part in our online study.

Results: We have recently completed data collection for this project. As such, we will conduct analyses at both a group-level and individual-level to examine the relationship between social insight and social anxiety for autistic and neurotypical adults. Correlational analyses, multiple linear regressions and Receiver Operating Curve analysis will be reported and presented.

Conclusions: The present research will have important implications for understanding the cognitive mechanisms associated with social anxiety in autistic and neurotypical adults. Research investigating the impact of social insight in socially anxious autistic adults is important for understanding whether social insight is a distinct mechanism contributing towards the development of social anxiety in this population. This research hopes to inform interventions used to help alleviate symptoms of social anxiety in autistic adults, who often experience increased insight into their own social difficulties.