The influence of interpersonal synchrony and autism on impressions of dyadic interactions: a preregistered study.
Irene S Plank, Ralf Tepest, Kai Vogeley and 1 others
PMID 40506740WHAT IT FOUND
Observers rated mixed autistic/non-autistic interactions as less pleasant than non-autistic pairs, regardless of their own diagnosis.
Better movement synchrony improved ratings slightly. Autistic observers looked at heads less but reached similar conclusions about pleasantness.
Key findings
01Interactions involving one autistic and one non-autistic person were rated as less pleasant than those between two non-autistic people.
02Higher interpersonal movement synchrony led to more pleasant ratings, but the effect size was small compared to the dyad type effect.
03Autistic observers spent less time looking at the heads of interaction partners compared to non-autistic observers, despite forming similar impressions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used only 10-second silent clips of moving outlines, so it does not reflect real-life interactions which include speech, faces, and longer durations. The effect of movement synchrony on pleasantness was very small (1.7 points) and may not be noticeable in everyday life. The sample had high IQ estimates and excluded non-verbal autistic adults, limiting generalisability to the wider autistic population. The study did not determine which specific movement patterns caused the negative impressions of mixed dyads.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Klinikum der Universität München. The authors declared no other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that improving movement synchrony will significantly change how pleasant an autistic person's interaction is perceived to be. The study found the effect of synchrony was small (1.7 points) compared to the strong negative bias against mixed dyads (7.7 points), which persisted regardless of synchrony levels.