TY - JOUR
T1 - Discrepancies between explicit and implicit evaluation of aesthetic perception ability in individuals with autism: a potential way to improve social functioning
AU - Mazza, Monica
AU - Pino, Maria Chiara
AU - Vagnetti, Roberto
AU - Peretti, Sara
AU - Valenti, Marco
AU - Marchetti, Antonella
AU - Di Dio, Cinzia
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Background: The capacity to evaluate beauty plays a crucial role in social behaviour and social relationships. It is
known that some characteristics of beauty are important social cues that can induce stereotypes or promote
different behavioural expectations. Another crucial capacity for success in social interactions is empathy, i.e. the
ability to understand and share others’ mental and emotional states. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) have an impairment of empathic ability. We showed in a previous study that empathy and aesthetic
perception abilities closely related. Indeed, beauty can affect different aspects of empathic behaviour, and empathy
can mediate the aesthetic perception in typically developing (TD) individuals. Thus, this study evaluates the ability
of aesthetic perception in ASD individuals compared to TD individuals, using the Golden Beauty behavioural task
adapted for eye-tracking in order to acquire both explicit and implicit evidences. In both groups, the relationship
between empathic and aesthetic perception abilities was also evaluated.
Methods: Ten ASD individuals (age ± SD:20.7 ± 4.64) and ten TD individuals (age ± SD:20.17 ± 0.98) participated in
the study. Participants underwent empathy tasks and then the Golden Beauty task. To assess differences in the
participants’ performance, we carried out a repeated measures general linear model.
Results: At the explicit level, our behavioural results show an impairment in aesthetic perception ability in ASD
individuals. This inability could have relevance for their ability to experience pleasure during social interactions.
However, at the implicit level (eye-tracking results), ASD individuals conserved a good ability to feel aesthetic
pleasure during the Golden Beauty task, thus indicating a discrepancy between the explicit and implicit evaluation
of the beauty task. Finally, beauty perception appears to be linked to empathy when neither of these capacities is
compromised, as demonstrated in the TD group. In contrast, this link lacks in ASD individuals.
AB - Background: The capacity to evaluate beauty plays a crucial role in social behaviour and social relationships. It is
known that some characteristics of beauty are important social cues that can induce stereotypes or promote
different behavioural expectations. Another crucial capacity for success in social interactions is empathy, i.e. the
ability to understand and share others’ mental and emotional states. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) have an impairment of empathic ability. We showed in a previous study that empathy and aesthetic
perception abilities closely related. Indeed, beauty can affect different aspects of empathic behaviour, and empathy
can mediate the aesthetic perception in typically developing (TD) individuals. Thus, this study evaluates the ability
of aesthetic perception in ASD individuals compared to TD individuals, using the Golden Beauty behavioural task
adapted for eye-tracking in order to acquire both explicit and implicit evidences. In both groups, the relationship
between empathic and aesthetic perception abilities was also evaluated.
Methods: Ten ASD individuals (age ± SD:20.7 ± 4.64) and ten TD individuals (age ± SD:20.17 ± 0.98) participated in
the study. Participants underwent empathy tasks and then the Golden Beauty task. To assess differences in the
participants’ performance, we carried out a repeated measures general linear model.
Results: At the explicit level, our behavioural results show an impairment in aesthetic perception ability in ASD
individuals. This inability could have relevance for their ability to experience pleasure during social interactions.
However, at the implicit level (eye-tracking results), ASD individuals conserved a good ability to feel aesthetic
pleasure during the Golden Beauty task, thus indicating a discrepancy between the explicit and implicit evaluation
of the beauty task. Finally, beauty perception appears to be linked to empathy when neither of these capacities is
compromised, as demonstrated in the TD group. In contrast, this link lacks in ASD individuals.
KW - Aesthetic perception
KW - Autism spectrum disorder
KW - Empathy
KW - Eye-tracking
KW - Social cognition
KW - Aesthetic perception
KW - Autism spectrum disorder
KW - Empathy
KW - Eye-tracking
KW - Social cognition
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/160069
U2 - 10.1186/s40359-020-00437-x
DO - 10.1186/s40359-020-00437-x
M3 - Article
SN - 2050-7283
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - BMC psychology
JF - BMC psychology
ER -