Nonverbal behaviours and first impressions during video calls

Autistic people often receive more negative first impressions ratings than non-autistic people, and whilst the cause of this is unclear, one possible reason could be differences in the use of nonverbal behaviours. To explore this, we investigated how autistic and non-autistic adults used nonverbal behaviours (i.e. facial expressions and body langauge) during video calls, and how this related to first impression ratings. Using the perspective of the Double Empathy Problem, we also explored the effect of partner neurotype (i.e. matched neurotype or mixed neurotype pairs) to assess whether communicating with someone of the same neurotype was associated with more positive first impression ratings or differences in nonverbal behaviour use.

Holly Radford is an autistic PhD student at the University of Portsmouth, funded by the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. Holly is researching how autistic people use nonverbal behaviours during social interactions, and how this is interpretted by others.