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Autistic traits and anthropomorphism: the case of vehicle fascia perception

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Abstract

Individuals high in autistic traits can have difficulties with social interactions which may stem from difficulties with mentalizing abilities, yet findings from research investigating anthropomorphism of non-human objects in high trait individuals are inconsistent. Measuring emotions and attributes of front-facing vehicles, individuals scoring high versus low on the AQ-10 were compared for ratings of angry-happy, hostile-friendly, masculine-feminine, and submissive-dominant, as a function of vehicle size (large versus small). Our results showed that participants perceived large vehicles as more angry, hostile, masculine, and dominant than small vehicles, with no significant difference in ratings between high and low AQ-10 scorers. The current findings support previous research reporting high autistic trait individuals’ intact object processing. Our novel findings also suggest high autistic trait individuals’ anthropomorphizing abilities are comparable to those found in low autistic trait individuals.

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Author notes

  1. Leilani Forby and Farid Pazhoohi have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Leilani Forby & Alan Kingstone

  2. School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Farid Pazhoohi

Authors
  1. Leilani Forby
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  2. Farid Pazhoohi
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  3. Alan Kingstone
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Correspondence to Farid Pazhoohi.

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The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Behavioural Research Ethics Committee of the University of British Columbia.

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Editors: Riccardo Brunetti (European University of Rome), Edmundo Kronmuller (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile); Reviewers: Amy Camodeca (Pennsylvania State University), Daniel Ivan Perez-Zapata (University of Birmingham).

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Forby, L., Pazhoohi, F. & Kingstone, A. Autistic traits and anthropomorphism: the case of vehicle fascia perception. Cogn Process (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-024-01187-z

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