Why do people with autism avoid eye contact?

Autism is considered to be not a critical condition but a condition which people are brain with and live with throughout their lives. Whole autistic people are considered to be recluses from society, many examples of autistic people being exceptionally smart in terms of some academic matters, and memory retention. However, it is known that autistic people do tend to be more and more reclusive with time and refrain from eye contact. There are two specific reasons for this. One reason is that eye contact triggers a sense of threat in the minds of Autistic people. Eye movement and brain activity are linked and this has been proved by research. Research shows that when the amygdale, which is a portion of the brain that is associated with negative emotions, lights up and become excessively active when a direct gaze is receipted by an autistic person. This negative feeling that is generated by the activity of the amygdale in the brain is what makes autistic people want to look away and avoid the direct gaze of eye contact. Because autistic people tend to feel like they are facing a threat through making eye contact, they tend to have the feeling of being looked through by making eye contact. Autistic people have the urgent need to feel secure at all times. They are aware of their difference from people around them and therefore need to be made to feel like no one can harm them. When making eye contact they tend to feel that the other person is looking through their mind and their thoughts and can know their secrets, making them feel exposed and therefore feel the threat of being harmed by that person.

Sources Spezio, M. L., Huang, P. Y. S., Castelli, F., & Adolphs, R. (2007). Amygdala damage impairs eye contact during conversations with real people. The Journal of neuroscience, 27(15), 3994-3997. Phillips, W., Baron-Cohen, S., & Rutter, M. (1992). The role of eye contact in goal detection: Evidence from normal infants and children with autism or mental handicap. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 375-375.