Do Beliefs About Whether Others Can See Modulate Social Seeking in Autism?
Roser Cañigueral, Antonia F de C Hamilton
PMID 30288648WHAT IT FOUND
Typical adults chose to watch videos of people who could see them more often than those who could not.
Autistic adults showed no such preference. This suggests reduced social motivation in autism is not due to avoiding eye shapes, but to not finding the belief that someone can see rewarding.
Key findings
01Typical participants preferred videos where the actress could see through the sunglasses, but this preference was absent in autism.
02Autistic participants showed no preference for videos with visible eyes over those with hidden eyes, unlike typical participants.
03The study found no significant difference between groups in the overall amount of effort put into viewing the videos.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used pre-recorded videos, so participants knew they were not interacting with a live person. This limits the ecological validity regarding the 'audience effect' (belief of being seen). The sample size was small, and the study was underpowered to detect complex interactions between belief, eye shape, and group. The 'paper-eyes' sunglasses were rated as odd or scary by some participants, which may have confounded the results for that specific condition. The autistic participants were high-functioning with IQs above 80, so the findings may not generalize to autistic individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the 'la Caixa' Foundation and the European Research Council. No specific conflicts of interest were declared by the authors in the text provided.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic individuals avoid eye contact because they find it aversive or scary. The study found that autistic participants did not actively avoid eye-shapes or belief cues more than they approached them; rather, they did not show the typical preference for them. This suggests a passive omission of social reward rather than active avoidance.