Autistic people outperform neurotypicals in a cartoon version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes

Abstract

Prior research suggests that while autistic people may demonstrate poorer facial emotion recognition when stimuli are human, these differences lessen when stimuli are anthropomorphic. To investigate this further, this work explores emotion recognition in autistic and neurotypical adults (n = 196). Groups were compared on a standard and a cartoon version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. Results indicated that autistic individuals were not significantly different from neurotypicals on the standard version. However, autistic people outperformed neurotypicals on the cartoon version. The implications for these findings regarding emotion recognition deficits and the social motivation account of autism are discussed and support the view of socio‐cognitive differences rather than deficits in this population. Lay Summary The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and a cartoon version were tested on autistic and neurotypical adults. Autistic adults were not significantly different on the original test compared to neurotypicals, but they outperformed neurotypical adults on the cartoon version.

Neural and visual processing of social gaze cueing in typical and ASD adults

“…On the other hand, ASD individuals spent a shorter time looking at the robot face and showed increased positional variability, indicating that ASD individuals use visual sensing mechanisms differently than TD individuals when gathering information from a simulated social face. This particular finding may contribute to the body of evidence that ASD individuals process cartoon-like faces better than human faces (Cross et al, 2022;Rosset et al, 2010).…”

“…Yet autistic individuals show both qualitative and quantitative differences in the processing of faces (Tang et al, 2015). Researchers have shown that autistic individuals may process cartoon faces easier than human faces (Cross et al, 2022;Rosset et al, 2010) as they may contain fewer dynamic facial expressions and eye movements.…”

“…Yet autistic individuals show both qualitative and quantitative differences in the processing of faces (Tang et al, 2015). Researchers have shown that autistic individuals may process cartoon faces easier than human faces (Cross et al, 2022; Rosset et al, 2010) as they may contain fewer dynamic facial expressions and eye movements. These findings provide a theoretical framework that predicts that autistic individuals may be better at engaging with simulated or cartoon faces than TD individuals.…”

Does the Study of Culture Enrich Our Understanding of Autism? A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Life on the Spectrum in Japan and the West

“…There are several reasons why autistic people may develop a specific interest in cartoon animation that is significantly elevated compared with neurotypicals, as research suggests (Anthony et al, 2013). The exaggeration inherent to anime (Liu et al, 2019) may make the emotional expression of characters particularly salient (Rozema, 2015), which autistic people may find helpful when decoding emotions (Atherton & Cross, 2021; Brosnan et al, 2015; Cross et al, 2022). For instance, anime faces have simplified shapes and a paucity of complex textures, which allow them to emphasize only the most salient aspects relevant to face identification with exaggerated expressions that powerfully convey meaning (Lu, 2009).…”

“…Appreciation for anthropomorphism is also found in autistic populations. For instance, autistic people in the U.K. report elevated rates of personification (White & Remington, 2019), and autistic participants from the United Kingdom and the United States show an interest and aptitude for seeing the human in the non-human (Atherton & Cross, 2018, 2019, 2021; Atherton et al, 2018, 2022; Cross et al, 2019, 2022). A considerable body of research from Western and non-Western countries links anthropomorphism to autism (see Atherton & Cross, 2018, for a review).…”