Autistic people are less accurate in identifying facial expressions related to anger when it is expressed in ‘real world speed’, says a new study. This ability is affected by the speed and intensity of the expression, according to the researchers.
The research, conducted at the University of Birmingham, was recently published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. It consisted of 31 children who had autism and 29 who didn’t. They were asked to identify emotions from a series of images that moved at differing speeds. It was found that all the kids identified all expressions except anger irrespective of the speed of the image and intensity of the expression.
The lead researcher of the study Connor Keating said, “We identified that autistic people had a specific difficulty recognizing anger which we are starting to think may relate to differences in the way autistic and non-autistic people produce these expressions. If this is true, it may not be accurate to talk about autistic people as having an ‘impairment’ or ‘deficit’ in recognizing emotion- it’s more than autistic and non-autistic faces may be speaking a different language when it comes to conveying emotion.”
Keating hopes that this insight will help people who interact regularly with someone with autism.
