Summary: | The aim of the present study was to investigate if individuals with high-functioning autism differ from typically developing (TD) individuals in judgments of social dimensions from faces. Thirty-two individuals with high functioning autism and sixty-seven TD individuals rated 196 synthetic faces representing 7 social dimensions. Overall, both groups performed similarly on the judgment tasks. However, some group differences emerged for ratings of Competence and Likeability in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) group. Furthermore, alexithymia, or emotion-blindness, was found to be a possible indicator of ability to judge social dimensions in the ASD group. Implications of present results in relation to prior and future research on social interaction on the autism spectrum are discussed.
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