Miss Leah Burleigh1, Mr Norman Tan1, Dr Belinda Fuss1, Professor Robyn Young1
1Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia
Biography:
Leah is completing the final year of her PhD (Clinical Psychology), with research focused on autism in forensic and legal settings. Her research explores why autistic individuals may experience disproportionately negative outcomes within the criminal justice system. Specifically, she investigates how autistic people are perceived by others, particularly in relation to expressions of remorse, and the factors that contribute to misunderstanding, biased judgements, and unequal treatment. Through this work, Leah aims to identify the mechanisms underlying these perceptions and inform strategies that reduce bias, promote equitable treatment, and improve outcomes for autistic people across forensic and legal contexts.
Abstract:
Purpose:
Prior research demonstrates that autistic individuals receive harsher treatment in the criminal justice system than non-autistic individuals, partly due to being perceived as less remorseful. However, the basis of these perceptions remains unclear. Given documented differences in facial affect in autism and the known role of facial cues in emotional judgements, the present study investigated whether a select number of facial cues would differ between groups and contribute to discrepancies in remorse perceptions.
Method:
Twenty-three autistic and twenty-one non-autistic actor videos were analysed using OpenFace 2.0 to derive AU activation-related data (AU01, AU04, AU15, AU17, AU28). These data were then combined into all possible AU activation combinations (e.g., AU01-AU04). For each single AU and AU combination, three major metrics were derived: duration, frequency, and intensity.
Results:
No significant differences were observed between autistic and non-autistic individuals in each metric of the examined AUs, nor were these cues associated with perceived remorse. The only reliable predictor of remorse judgements was video length, with longer responses rated as more remorseful.
Conclusion:
Taken together, these findings suggest that the examined facial cues may not meaningfully contribute to perceptions of remorse, nor explain previously observed differences in perceived remorse between autistic and nonautistic individuals. However, they suggest that observers may, in part, rely on alternative, potentially non-facial or more temporally extended information when forming such judgements. This highlights the need to better identify the cues that underpin remorseful expressions, before then re-examining differences between autistic and non-autistic populations.