Facial Affect Differences in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults Across Contexts and Their Relationship to First-Impression Formation

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Foster, S. J., Jones, D. R., Pinkham, A. E., & Sasson, N. (2024). Facial Affect Differences in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults Across Contexts and Their Relationship to First-Impression Formation. Autism in Adulthood, 7(5), 581-593. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2023.0199

Publication date: 30 Apr 2024 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)

Abstract

Background: Autistic people often receive unfavorable first impressions from non-autistic people, likely because of stigma related to divergent social presentations and expressive behaviors. Although facial expressivity influences first impressions in the general population, no research has examined whether expressivity differences in autism relate to the formation of first impressions by non-autistic people. It is also unclear whether facial expressivity in autism varies depending upon contextual demands and whether this affects first impressions. Methods: We video-recorded 21 autistic and 21 non-autistic adults in two contexts, interviewing for their ideal job and discussing a personal interest, and quantified the percentage of video frames displaying positive, neutral, and negative facial affect using iMotions software. We also compared facial affect between the autistic and non-autistic groups within and between contexts. Later, 335 non-autistic undergraduates rated participants using the First Impression Scale to assess whether impressions were modulated by context and showed associations with facial expressivity. Results: Findings demonstrated that autistic and non-autistic adults differed in overall emotional expressivity, with non-autistic participants displaying more positive affect at a trend-level than autistic participants. Autistic adults also received less favorable first impressions, and these showed some correspondence with their emotional expressivity. For example, their displays of negative affect were moderately to strongly related to worse impressions in the job interview context, a pattern not found to the same degree for non-autistic participants. Impressions of autistic participants also improved more than for non-autistic ones when talking about a personal interest compared with the job interview context, and when their diagnosis was disclosed to observers. Discussion: Collectively, these findings indicate that autistic people demonstrate divergent facial emotional expressivity that relates to the less favorable impressions they receive from non-autistic observers. Context and diagnostic disclosure also affect how autistic people are perceived. Community Brief: The results may be used to inform non-autistic people of their biases toward the expressive differences of autistic adults in personal and professional contexts to help minimize discrimination and exclusion.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 14:00.

Cited references
70
With a DOI
66
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
4 / 70 (5.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
3 / 70 (4.3%)
References with detected author names
68 / 70 (97.1%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
4
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
2
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
245
From DOI or external metadata
245
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
67 / 245 (27.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 178 / 245 (72.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
5 / 245 (2.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 5 / 67 (7.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 4 / 205 (2.0%).
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