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1General introduction21of emotional states, without neglecting the uniqueness of experiences, based on individual characteristics or contextual factors (see also Scarantino & Griffiths, 2011; van Heijst et al., 2023). In the current dissertation, I examine emotional expressions in their social-communicative function more closely, zooming in on individual differences in their perception and interpretation that are associated with autism and social anxiety. In line with most research in this field, my main focus is on the processing of distinct facial displays of emotions, following basic emotion categories. For these %u201cprototypical%u201d expressions, alterations associated with autism and social anxiety have been described at various processing stages and various levels of description. While emotional expressions are known to automatically capture and hold attention in general (Carreti%u00e9, 2014), both individuals on the autism spectrum and individuals with social anxiety show altered patterns of attentional deployment. Following predictions of theoretical models, such as the Relevance Detection theory (Zalla & Sperduti, 2013) or the two-pathway model (Cuve et al., 2018), individuals on the autism spectrum tend to avoid faces, and specifically the eye region, to regulate arousal. According to the Relevance Detection theory, this avoidance stems from a hyper-activation of the amygdala in response to salient stimuli, such as others%u2019 eyes, which results in unpleasantly high arousal levels. Next to this explanation, the two-pathway model (Cuve et al., 2018) proposes a lower automatic engagement with the eye region in some individuals on the autism spectrum, accompanied by lower arousal levels and less attention to the eyes, as second path. Importantly, avoiding another individual%u2019s eyes seems to negatively impact the processing of their facially displayed emotions, as alterations in gaze, including an avoidance of the eye region, have been linked to a lower emotion recognition performance in individuals on the autism spectrum compared to control participants (Kliemann et al., 2010). In contrast, angry facial expressions have repeatedly been shown to affect both initial and sustained attention more strongly in individuals with social anxiety compared to controls (Clauss et al., 2022; Lazarov et al., 2021; Mogg, Bradley, et al., 2004). The proposed explanation for this phenomenon is that they represent social threat (i.e., negative evaluations), as described in the cognitive behavioral model of social anxiety by Rapee & Heimberg (most recent update: Heimberg et al., 2010), which highlights an increased vigilance to external social cues.