Mismatching Expressions: Spatiotemporal and Kinematic Differences in Autistic and Non‐Autistic Facial Expressions

Journal article

Lay Summary: This study compared the facial expressions produced by autistic and non‐autistic people. Our findings demonstrate that autistic and non‐autistic adults produce different angry, happy, and sad facial expressions, even after accounting for other interfering factors. This mismatch in facial expressions could explain why autistic people find it difficult to recognize non‐autistic expressions, and vice versa; autistic and non‐autistic faces may be essentially “speaking a different language” when it comes to conveying emotion. As such, what have previously been thought of as intrinsic emotion recognition “deficits” for autistic people may be more accurately described as difficulties resulting from cross‐neurotype interactions (i.e., interactions between autistic and non‐autistic people, as opposed to interactions between two autistic people). Further research is needed to test the impact of expressive differences on emotion recognition for autistic and non‐autistic people.

Authors: Keating, CT; Sowden‐Carvalho, S; O′Donoghue, H; Cook, JL

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Autism Research
• Publication date: 2026-01-18
• Acceptance date: 2025-12-10
• DOI: 10.1002/aur.70157
• EISSN: 1939-3806
• ISSN: 1939-3792
• Language: English
• Keywords: alexithymia; autism; social interaction; emotion; facial expression