Brief Report: Sensitivity of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders to Face Appearance in Selective Trust.
Autistic kids pick trustworthy faces the same way typical kids do, so you can safely use attractive, same-race peer models without extra training.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team showed kids two faces on a screen. One face was own-race and attractive. The other face was different-race or less attractive.
Kids had to pick which person would give them the right answer about a toy. All kids had autism. A same-age group without autism did the same task.
What they found
Both groups picked the own-race, attractive face most of the time. Kids with autism trusted the "nice-looking" face just as much as typical kids.
There was no group difference. Face race and beauty guided trust the same way in both sets of children.
How this fits with other research
Latimier et al. (2019) later tested adults with autism and got the same null result. Together the studies show that face-based trust stays intact across the lifespan in ASD.
Kleinert et al. (2007) seems to disagree. They saw less eye-looking when faces moved in social scenes. The clash disappears when you notice the task: moving social video versus still photo. Static pictures are enough for trust choices; dynamic scenes may need extra eye contact.
Ramachandran et al. (2010) came first. They proved people with autism can link faces to inferred traits. Pengli’s team built on that by showing kids actually use those traits to decide whom to believe.
Why it matters
You can stop worrying that autistic kids won’t respond to typical peer models. Pick confident, same-race, friendly-looking helpers or video models. The kids will trust them as much as typical peers would. No extra social-skills module is needed just to make the model "believable." Use the same face cues you already use for other children.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The current study examined how children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) could selectively trust others based on three facial cues: the face race, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. In a computer-based hide-and-seek game, two face images, which differed significantly in one of the three facial cues, were presented as two cues for selective trust. Children had to selectively trust the own-race, attractive and trustworthy faces to get the prize. Our findings demonstrate an intact ability of selective trust based on face appearance in ASD compared to typical children: they could selectively trust the informant based on face race and attractiveness. Our results imply that despite their face recognition deficits, children with ASD are still sensitive to some aspects of face appearance.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2016 · doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2761-1