Poor face recognition predicts social anxiety in autism: A short report.
Bayparvah Kaur Gehdu, Katie Lh Gray, Richard Cook
PMID 39155477WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults with poor face recognition reported more social anxiety than those with average face recognition.
Many said not recognising people made social interaction and friendships harder. This does not prove face recognition causes anxiety.
Key findings
01Fifty-five of the 60 autistic adults met the cut-off for clinically significant social anxiety, and those with poor face recognition reported higher anxiety than those with average or above-average face recognition.
02Poor face recognition remained associated with social anxiety after accounting for autism traits, alexithymia traits and ADHD traits.
03Thirty-seven of the 60 participants agreed poor face recognition made social interaction difficult, and 22 agreed it hindered making friends.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study measured face recognition and social anxiety at one time point, so it cannot show that poor face recognition caused social anxiety. Most participants had clinically significant social anxiety even if their face recognition was average or above-average, so poor face recognition is not the only factor involved. The sample was small and recruited online, and 48 described their sex as female while 12 described their sex as male, so it may not represent the wider autistic population. The poor face recognition group was defined by a test cut-off of less than 65% on both face recognition tests, not by a formal diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia. Thirty-seven participants agreed poor face recognition made social interaction difficult, while only 18 met the test cut-off, so the test may not identify all people who report difficulty.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that poor face recognition causes social anxiety in autistic adults. The study found a link in a small online sample, and the authors state that the results do not show causality. Do not assume that improving face recognition will reduce social anxiety, because no treatment was tested.