Autistic traits heighten sensitivity to rejection-induced social pain.

Abstract

Autistic traits-subclinical forms of characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorders-are associated with poor social interactions and high risks for mental health disorders. We hypothesized that altered sensitivity to social rejection is an important contributor to psychological distress observed among individuals with high autistic traits. Experiment 1 adopted a social-judgment task and compared behavioral and neural activity in response to social rejection between participants exhibiting either high or low autistic traits (HAT and LAT, respectively). Rejection-induced hurt feelings, P3 amplitudes, and θ-oscillation magnitudes were greater in the HAT group than in the LAT group. Mediation analysis indicated that autistic traits heighten rejection-induced social pain through increasing frontal-midline θ-oscillations. Responses to nonsocial feedback in the age-judgment task were comparable, confirming that the between-group differences were specific to social negative feedback. Experiment 2 assessed the association between autistic traits, rejection sensitivity, and psychological distress among randomly recruited participants. Results showed that autistic traits affected depressive/anxious symptomatology partially through heightened rejection sensitivity. Therefore, autistic traits heighten sensitivity to rejection-induced social pain that leads to psychological distress. This finding will help facilitate the development of strategies for coping with social pain and improving mental health for individuals with high autistic traits.