For many people with autism, avoiding eye contact isn’t a sign that they don’t care – instead, it’s a response to a deeply uncomfortable sensation.
Researchers have discovered a part of the brain responsible for helping newborns turn towards familiar faces is abnormally activated among those on the autism spectrum, suggesting therapies that force eye contact could inadvertently be inducing anxiety.
Autism spectrum disorder is a term used to describe a variety of conditions that make communicating and socialising a challenge, and is often accompanied by restricted and repetitive behaviours.
A defining characteristic of autism spectrum disorder is a difficulty in making or maintaining eye contact, a behaviour that not only makes social interactions harder, but can lead to miscommunication among cultures where eye contact is taken as a sign of trust and respect.
Those with the condition typically claim it feels “unnatural” or express anxiety over making eye contact, but psychologists have been uncertain if the discomfort is sensory or stems from conflict over the social importance of looking a person in the eye when you communicate.
Previous research suggested the latter, but a team of neurologists from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US suspected the problem might be over-sensitivity of the parts of the brain responsible for emotional perception.
Really? You had to do a study?
Instead of just…. listening to us?
Studies like these are critical in turning anec-data (singular testimonies from people) into actual, quantifiable research. So yes, they did need to do a study because now people can cite the study, use the study to justify treatments, and generally help people in a way they couldn’t when all they had was correlation.
Hey kids as an Aspie (not that I knew up until last year…) I have a couple of bits of advice:
If someone wear a glasses, it’s easy because you can focus on the frames rather than the eyes.
If not you can concentrate on the bridge of the nose, right in between, or on the eyebrows.
I explained these to my therapist and she admitted she had no idea I was doing this so it works 🙆
My solution is to look at the end of the person’s nose (when I’m not reading their lips). It’s so ingrained in me as a subconscious thing that I don’t even remember teaching my youngest brother to do so after our father yelled at him for not making eye contact (but our mother assures me that I did).