Do Beliefs About Whether Others Can See Modulate Social Seeking in Autism?

Abstract

Autistic people process gaze differently than typical people, but it is not yet clear if these differences lie in the processing of eye-shapes or the belief in whether others can see (perceptual mentalizing). We aimed to investigate whether these two models of gaze processing modulate social seeking in typical and autistic adults. We measured preferences of participants to view videos of an actress with visible or hidden eyes, who can or cannot see out. While typical participants preferred videos where the actress can see through and has visible eyes, autistic people showed no preference for these videos. These findings are discussed in the context of perceptual mentalizing and the social motivation theory of autism.