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Should I trust you? Autistic traits predict reduced appearance‐based trust decisions
Author(s) -
Hooper Jasmine J.,
Sutherland Clare A. M.,
Ewing Louise,
Langdon Robyn,
Caruathan,
Connaughton Emily,
Williams Nikolas,
GreenwellBarnden Jayden,
Rhodes Gillian
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/bjop.12357
Subject(s) - neurotypical , psychology , autistic traits , autism , trustworthiness , social psychology , dissociation (chemistry) , population , theory of mind , cognitive psychology , social perception , developmental psychology , perception , cognition , autism spectrum disorder , chemistry , demography , neuroscience , sociology
Facial impressions of trustworthiness guide social decisions in the general population, as shown by financial lending in economic Trust Games. As an exception, autistic boys fail to use facial impressions to guide trust decisions, despite forming typical facial trustworthiness impressions (Autism, 19, 2015a, 1002). Here, we tested whether this dissociation between forming and using facial impressions of trustworthiness extends to neurotypical men with high levels of autistic traits. Forty‐six Caucasian men completed a multi‐turn Trust Game, a facial trustworthiness impressions task, the Autism‐Spectrum Quotient, and two Theory of Mind tasks. As hypothesized, participants’ levels of autistic traits had no observed effect on the impressions formed, but negatively predicted the use of those impressions in trust decisions. Thus, the dissociation between forming and using facial impressions of trustworthiness extends to the broader autism phenotype. More broadly, our results identify autistic traits as an important source of individual variation in the use of facial impressions to guide behaviour. Interestingly, failure to use these impressions could potentially represent rational behaviour, given their limited validity.