title: Audience effects: what can they tell us about social neuroscience, theory of mind and autism?
abstract: An audience effect arises when a person's behaviour changes because they believe someone else is watching them. Though these effects have been known about for over 110 years, the cognitive mechanisms of the audience effect and how it might vary across different populations and cultures remains unclear. In this review, we examine the hypothesis that the audience effect draws on implicit mentalising abilities. Behavioural and neuroimaging data from a number of tasks are consistent with this hypothesis. We further review data suggest that how people respond to audiences may vary over development, personality factors, cultural background and clinical diagnosis including autism and anxiety disorder. Overall, understanding and exploring the audience effect may contribute to our models of social interaction, including reputation management and mentalising.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AZ UK.
authors.forename: Antonia F de C
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8000-0219
authors.initials: AFC
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.|Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AZ UK.
authors.forename: Frida
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lind
keywords: Audience effect; Autism; Reputation management; Self-focus; Social facilitation; Theory of mind