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In our daily interactions, understanding emotions plays a crucial role. A smile, a tear, or even a blush on someone’s face can communicate volumes about their feelings. However, for people with autism and social anxiety, interpreting these emotional cues is often more challenging. Recent research by Julia Folz, a Ph.D. candidate in cognitive psychology, offers new insights into how body-focused interventions could help individuals in these groups better understand others’ emotions.
The Science Behind Emotion Recognition
Folz’s dissertation explores the idea that recognizing emotions isn’t just about hearing words, but also about observing and mirroring others’ facial expressions and physical responses. “We show our feelings through facial expressions, such as smiling or blushing. We not only observe others’ emotions, but also subconsciously mirror them,” Folz explains.
While this process comes naturally to most, for individuals with autism or social anxiety, it’s often a struggle. Folz set out to investigate why this is the case and how these individuals process the physical signals that contribute to understanding emotions.
Key Findings
Through her research, Folz discovered that people with autism tend to mirror others’ emotions less than those without the condition. “They also make less use of the information from their own body to interpret the emotions of the other person,” she notes. This lack of emotional mirroring can make social interactions more challenging, as it becomes harder to gauge the feelings of others.
Folz believes that with proper interventions, individuals with autism could improve their emotional understanding. “I think people with autism can be trained to interpret internal signals more effectively, which could help them better understand what others are feeling,” she suggests.
The Role of the Body
In her study, Folz also looked at how people with social anxiety disorder process emotions. However, drawing firm conclusions was more challenging, as the pandemic restricted her ability to observe real-life interactions, which are often a source of anxiety for people with this condition. Despite this, some evidence showed that stronger physical reactions to emotional cues might cause people with social anxiety to perceive emotions as more intense than they really are.
“There is a need for further research to confirm these findings,” Folz explains, “but I believe interventions could help individuals with social anxiety differentiate between their internal physical responses and the emotions of others.”
Measuring Emotional Responses
Folz used a range of techniques to assess how people process emotional expressions. She monitored participants’ facial muscle activity with sensors, tracked physical responses like sweating, and observed skin temperature changes that could indicate blushing. The research involved a combination of control groups and participants diagnosed with autism or social anxiety to provide a comprehensive understanding of emotional processing.
The Need for Individualized Approaches
While the study found differences in how people with autism and social anxiety process emotions, it’s important to note that these differences are not inherently wrong. “There’s no one ‘correct’ way to interpret emotional expressions,” Folz stresses. “People can still be very successful, even if they make little use of physical cues. The goal is to provide support in a way that works for each individual.”
Looking Ahead
The findings from Folz’s research open the door to potential interventions that focus on helping people with autism and social anxiety become more attuned to their own physical responses and better interpret the emotions of others. Follow-up studies will be crucial in determining the effectiveness of these interventions and refining strategies for helping these individuals navigate social interactions.
For more information, you can read Folz’s full dissertation at www.my-thesis.nl/folz.
This study, conducted by Leiden University, highlights the importance of integrating physical responses into emotional understanding, providing a promising path forward for enhancing social communication for individuals with autism and social anxiety.
