Emotional Contagion and Autistic Traits: Disentangling Components of Social-Emotional Processing.

Lundqvist (2026) watched high-functioning adults with autism while they viewed short videos of happy, sad, and angry faces.

The team measured tiny muscle movements in the viewers’ own faces to see if they automatically copied the emotions.

They also gave standard social-skills tests to learn whether less copying linked to real-life social trouble.

The autism group showed fewer matching face movements than the control group.

Less copying went hand-in-hand with lower social-function scores, even though everyone was high-functioning.

Schulte-Rüther et al. (2017) seems to disagree. They found normal automatic mimicry in autistic youth when attention was held steady.

The gap is about method: Martin used a quick button-press task that catches reflex-level mimicry, while Lars-Olov watched free-viewing facial reactions.

Both can be true: the reflex circuit works, but the visible, socially-timed facial echo is weak.

Crippa et al. (2013) and Goodwin et al. (2012) already showed that social or emotional primes don’t boost imitation in autism; Lars-Olov adds the face-specific picture.

If your client’s face stays flat when you smile, it isn’t bad attitude—it’s part of autism.

Knowing this can stop you from over-prompting eye-contact and instead teach deliberate facial signals the learner can control.

Try video modeling plus self-monitoring: let the learner watch clips, then practice matching expressions while watching their own face on screen.