Poor face recognition predicts social anxiety in autism: A short report.

In the present study, we sought to examine whether face recognition problems impact the social anxiety experienced by autistic people. Many autistic people – perhaps between 15% and 30% – exhibit severe face recognition problems that closely resemble developmental prosopagnosia. At present, however, little is known about the psychosocial consequences of these difficulties. Autistic participants (N = 60) with varying degrees of face recognition ability completed two measures of face recognition (the original and Australian variants of the Cambridge Face Memory test), a measure of social anxiety (the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale) and a bespoke survey that enquired about individuals’ experiences of face recognition and social interaction. Relative to autistic individuals with average or above-average face recognition, autistic individuals with poor face recognition described significantly higher levels of social anxiety. Moreover, more than half our participants felt that poor face recognition hampered their social interaction, while more than a third thought that poor face recognition had undermined their efforts to make friends. These initial results suggest that poor face recognition may be an important determinant of social anxiety in autism.

Lay abstract Research has shown that some autistic people have severe difficulties in recognising other people’s faces. However, little is understood about how these difficulties impact the daily life and the mental well-being of autistic people. In this study, we asked 60 autistic adults with varying degrees of face recognition ability to complete two tests of face recognition, a questionnaire about social anxiety and a bespoke survey which asked participants about their experiences of face recognition and social interaction. We found that participants who had poor face recognition reported experiencing higher levels of social anxiety compared to those with average or better face recognition skills. More than half felt that their face recognition difficulties affected their social interactions, and over a third believed it hindered their ability to make friends. These findings suggest that face recognition difficulties may contribute to social anxiety among autistic individuals.