Testing the association of affective flexibility with autistic traits and emotion regulation using an adapted Flexible Item Selection Task

Affective flexibility refers to the ability to shift cognitive processes, strategies or mental sets in response to situational demands within an emotional context. It plays a crucial role in effective emotion regulation (ER), an aspect that individuals with autism or high autistic traits often struggle with. While previous self-reported studies have indicated reduced flexibility in autistic individuals, the relationship between affective flexibility and ER difficulties remains unclear. This study used an experimental approach to examine whether affective flexibility is associated with individual differences in autistic traits and ER difficulties. Affective flexibility was measured in 60 neurotypical adults using an adapted version of the affective Flexible Item Selection Task (affective FIST) with emotion-laden images as stimuli. Participants exhibited degraded performance during negative flexibility trials compared to neutral flexibility trials. Importantly, regression analyses revealed that poorer behavioral performance in both negative and neutral flexibility conditions predicted greater difficulties in switching as an autistic trait, as well as greater difficulties in ER. Our findings advance the understanding of the role of affective flexibility in ER within the context of autism research and demonstrate that the adapted affective FIST holds promise as an objective measure of affective flexibility in autistic individuals.