On the Difficulty of Making Social Choices in Autistic Adults: A Decisions from Experience Study

In an attempt to shed light on the social decision difficulties experienced by autistic adults, the current study examines the dynamics of experience-based social decisions. We developed an experiential task where participants’ goal was to select the most kind and pleasant agent out of four, based on the valence (positivity/ negativity) of the facial emotions presented upon selecting them. This was administered along with a judgment task where participants ranked the valence of the same facial emotions. We recruited an online sample of 123 U.S. participants: 43 self-identified with autism and 80 who were not. The findings provide preliminary evidence of a novel experiential social interaction style in autistic individuals involving increased switching between social agents, and greater avoidance of extreme emotion agents. The unique style of experiential social selections in autistic adults may open a portal to understanding some of the social difficulties experienced in autism.