Abstract
The male preponderance in autism diagnoses is widely reported, yet the psychological mechanisms underlying this sex difference is poorly understood. The present study investigated the mediating role of emotional processing differences in the relationship between sex (as assigned at birth) and autistic traits, in two large general population studies. Results showed that emotion processing differences mediated the relationship between sex and autistic traits, whereby being male was associated with more emotion processing differences, which were subsequently linked with greater levels of autistic traits.