Reduced social attention towards negative images in autism

Reduced visual attention to social stimuli in autism is often attributed to diminished social reward sensitivity. However, most evidence comes from research using positive content (e.g. smiling faces), making it unclear whether reduced social attention generalises to negative social scenes. If group differences persist when social stimuli are negative, this would challenge purely reward-based explanations. We tested whether autistic adults show reduced preferential attention to negative social stimuli. Autistic (n=30) and non-autistic (n=51) adults completed a preferential looking task in which negative social and non-social images were presented side-by-side while eye movements were recorded. Social images depicted humans in negative contexts (e.g., conflict), and non-social images depicted negative scenes without people (e.g., natural disasters, pollution). Each pair was shown intact and phase-scrambled (rendering social content unidentifiable). Social preference was defined as the proportion of gaze time on the social image. Mixed-effects models tested effects of Group, Stimulus Type (intact vs scrambled), and their interaction. Time-series examined how social preference evolved over time. Non-autistic adults allocated greater viewing time to intact negative social images than autistic adults, but groups did not differ for scrambled images, indicating effects depended on social content rather than low-level visual features. Time-series analysis showed group differences emerged late in viewing: both groups showed early bias towards social content that declined, but only non-autistic participants showed later increases in social preference. Autistic adults allocate less attention to negative social content, extending evidence for reduced preference beyond positive scenes and challenging explanations based solely on social reward sensitivity.