Hey, what a strange, novel, and totally unexpected--read: logical--question!
  Thank you.
  I am high functioning in my Autism, and it has long bugged me that we are treated a lot like bizarre insects, and not as, oh, gee, I don't know,,, intelligent people.
  I do look at eyes in most animals. I look at eyes in art (usually not my main area of focus), and I have little trouble looking at eyes in films--depending a lot upon the style of acting, directing, etc.
  But, even at age 59 I still have trouble looking straight into people's eyes in public, in real life. I can see a lot of information from said art, photo, film, but it is like an over-voltage effect, drowning out the signal, with live people.
  So, I can easily understand the study and its results,, but I question, from my life experience, the conclusions. I do miss a lot of social clues, and part of this is the matter of eyes, and part that I do not think or perceive as do they, the general public. Curiously, I got along just fine with several wolves that I raised, and it was commented by a Biologist friend that their (the wolves's) social convention of not looking straight into each other's eyes was rather like mine. We could understand each other well through other clues.
  Take this as you will.