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1General introduction27but have rather been found to recognize dynamic sad facial expressions less accurately than static ones (Enticott et al., 2014). This could be due to differences in internal representations of facial motion associated with specific emotional expressions in individuals on the autism spectrum compared to controls (e.g., for anger expression, see Keating et al., 2021). Furthermore, while individuals with high social anxiety trait levels within the general population showed an advantage in recognizing static facial expressions of anger, this was not the case for dynamic expressions of anger (Torro-Alves et al., 2016). Thus, using richer facial emotional expressions as stimuli in laboratory settings might allow to tap into more diverse and relevant alterations in facial emotion perception associated with autism and social anxiety. An additional path for facial emotion perception research to obtain higher ecological validity is to study the role of more subtle indicators of emotional experiences. Cues of emotional arousal, such as a blush, tears or the dilation of pupils, are less easily controlled than facial muscle (de-)activations, and can hence be seen as an even more pure visible sign of emotions in others (Kret, 2015). Studying changes in indicators of autonomic nervous system activity associated with the expressions of these visible cues (e.g., pupil size, facial reddening) can provide promising insights in the alignment in (emotional) arousal. Outline of the DissertationUnderstanding others%u2019 emotions in interactions is crucial in forming social bonds which eventually contribute to an individual%u2019s well-being. Both individuals on the autism spectrum and individuals with social anxiety have difficulties in interactions with others, and past research suggests that they also differ in how they perceive and respond to others%u2019 emotions. So far, however, most studies have examined alterations associated with either autism or social anxiety (trait levels), complicating to unveil shared and distinct alterations. Often, they have focussed on alterations on one level of description (e.g., physiological resonance versus subjective interpretation), without considering potential links between levels. Addressing these limitations, the present dissertation aims to provide a more integrative understanding of alterations in the perception, resonance and interpretation of other individual%u2019s (facial) emotional expressions in autism and social anxiety (trait levels). As this is a complex process, the different chapters of the dissertation focus on relevant factors in different processing stages and at different levels of description, as well as the links between them.