Review 2: Greater autism knowledge and contact with autistic people are independently associated with favourable attitudes towards autistic people

South Korea, a relatively collectivistic and homogeneous country with heightened cultural tightness, is believed to have particularly high levels of stigma toward autistic individuals, who sometimes engage in behaviors that diverge from social norms. This study investigated cross-cultural differences in autism stigma (assessed with a Social Distance Scale) in the United States and South Korea. Two-hundred and seventy-six American and 494 Korean participants who completed an online survey were included in the analysis. We conducted a multiple regression predicting autism stigma with variables that were correlated with stigma. Koreans reported greater autism stigma than Americans. Greater vertical individualism, lesser horizontal collectivism, less accurate autism knowledge, less pleasant and frequent previous contact with autism, concerns about the marriageability of family members, and higher cultural tightness predicted greater stigma. Cultural tightness, or an emphasis on social norms, which was heightened among Korean participants, contributed to greater autism stigma in South Korea. Findings highlight the need to increase autism knowledge and foster pleasant and frequent contact with autistic individuals, especially for those who accept inequality as a part of human interactions in both South Korea and the United States. Moreover, interventions that help Koreans understand the relativeness of social appropriateness may reduce autism stigma in South Korea. Lay abstract Misunderstandings about autism may be more common in South Korea than the United States. Koreans often have clear ideas about how people should act. Another way of saying this is that Korea has a tight culture. Americans are looser, meaning people are freer to act as they like. Autistic people often do not act as people expect them to. This makes autistic people stand out. Autistic people may stand out more in tight cultures like South Korea. We studied how people in South Korea and the United States feel about autism. We wanted to see why Korean people might reject autistic people more than people in the United States do. American and Korean people did online surveys. Koreans said they did not want to get close to autistic people more than Americans did. People who understood autism and had met and liked autistic people wanted to get closer to autistic people. We were surprised to learn that Americans said having an autistic brother or sister makes it harder to find a romantic partner more than Korean people did. People who believed that autism makes it harder for family members to find love did not want to get very close to autistic people. Koreans said people should act as expected more than Americans did. People who believed that acting as expected was important did not want to get very close to autistic people. Teaching people that there are many ways of being a good person may help them understand and appreciate autistic people.

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Factually based autism awareness campaigns may not always be effective in changing attitudes towards autism: Evidence from British and South Korean nursing students

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361319898362 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (5) ◽

pp. 1177-1190

Author(s):

Saoirse Mac Cárthaigh ◽

Beatriz López

Keyword(s):

Cultural Differences ◽

Student Nurses ◽

Autistic Traits ◽

Self Report ◽

Factual Knowledge ◽

Korean Student ◽

South Korean ◽

Frequency Of Contact ◽

Autistic People ◽

Autism Knowledge

This study explored the relationship between autism knowledge, autistic traits, frequency of contact with autistic people and attitudes towards these individuals in British and South Korean student nurses and whether these relationships were affected by the presence of autistic traits. In total, 331 participants (156 South Korean and 175 British) completed self-report measures of autism knowledge, attitudes towards autistic people, frequency of contact with these individuals and autistic traits. Although British participants demonstrated greater knowledge and more favourable attitudes, significant knowledge deficiencies were noted in both groups. Among British participants, knowledge was found to be a significant, but a very marginal, predictor of attitudes, whereas neither knowledge nor frequency of contact were predictive of attitudes among South Korean participants. Contrary to previous research findings, cultural differences in the presence of autistic traits were not noted, nor were these traits found to correlate with attitudes towards autistic people. The findings suggest that awareness initiatives which aim to address attitudes towards autism need more than simply increasing factual knowledge. More importantly, the results suggest that Western-developed autism awareness initiatives may be ineffectual if cultural idiosyncrasies are not considered. Lay abstract This study explored the relationship between autism knowledge, autistic traits, frequency of contact with autistic people and attitudes towards these individuals in British and South Korean student nurses and whether these relationships were affected by the presence of autistic traits. In total, 331 participants (156 South Korean and 175 British) completed self-report measures of autism knowledge, attitudes towards autistic people, frequency of contact with these individuals and autistic traits. Although British participants demonstrated greater knowledge and more favourable attitudes, significant knowledge gaps were noted in both groups. Among British participants, knowledge was found to be only a marginal predictor of attitudes, whereas neither knowledge nor frequency of contact were predictive of attitudes among South Korean participants. Contrary to previous research findings, cultural differences in the presence of autistic traits were not noted, nor were these traits found to be related to attitudes towards autistic people. The findings suggest that awareness initiatives which aim to address attitudes towards autism need more than simply increasing factual knowledge. More importantly, the results suggest that Western-developed autism awareness initiatives may be ineffectual if cultural differences are not considered.

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Greater autism knowledge and contact with autistic people are independently associated with favourable attitudes towards autistic people

Experimental Results ◽

10.1017/exp.2020.46 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

Author(s):

Alanna J. Shand ◽

Scarlett A. D. Close ◽

Punit Shah

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Linear Regression ◽

Multivariate Analyses ◽

Public Awareness ◽

Public Attitudes ◽

Autistic Traits ◽

Knowledge Level ◽

Awareness Campaigns ◽

Autistic People ◽

Autism Knowledge

AbstractUnderstanding individual differences in attitudes to autism is crucial for improving attitudes and reducing stigma towards autistic people, yet there is limited and inconsistent research on this topic. This is compounded by a lack of appropriate measures and multivariate analyses. Addressing these issues, using up-to-date measures and multiple linear regression, we examined the relative contributions of participant age, sex, autism knowledge, level of contact with autistic people, and autistic traits to attitudes towards autistic people. We found that greater autism knowledge and higher levels of contact, but no other variables, were uniquely predictive of attitudes towards autistic people. We conclude that, in addition to public awareness campaigns to raise knowledge of autism, it may be important to increase contact between autistic and non-autistic people to improve public attitudes towards autistic people.

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Effects of autism acceptance training on explicit and implicit biases toward autism

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361320984896 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136236132098489

Author(s):

Desiree R Jones ◽

Kilee M DeBrabander ◽

Noah J Sasson

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Training Programs ◽

Training Condition ◽

Mental Health Training ◽

General Mental Health ◽

Training Video ◽

Implicit Biases ◽

Autistic People ◽

Autism Knowledge ◽

Autistic Adults

Non-autistic adults often hold explicit and implicit biases toward autism that contribute to personal and professional challenges for autistic people. Although previous research indicates that non-autistic adults with higher autism knowledge and familiarity express more inclusionary attitudes, it remains unclear whether training programs designed to promote autism acceptance and understanding affect subsequent implicit and explicit biases toward autism. In this study, non-autistic adults ( N = 238) completed an autism acceptance training featuring factual information and engaging first-person narratives, a general mental health training not mentioning autism, or a no-training control, then responded to surveys assessing their autism knowledge, stigma, and impressions of autistic adults, and completed a novel implicit association task about autism. Non-autistic adults in the autism acceptance training condition reported more positive impressions of autistic adults, demonstrated fewer misconceptions and lower stigma about autism, endorsed higher expectations of autistic abilities, and expressed greater social interest in hypothetical and real autistic people. However, training had no effect on implicit biases, with non-autistic adults associating autism-related labels with unpleasant personal attributes regardless of training condition. These findings suggest that the autism acceptance training program in this study, designed to increase autism knowledge and familiarity among non-autistic people, holds promise for reducing explicit but not implicit biases toward autism. Lay abstract Autistic adults face prejudice from non-autistic people. They are often judged unfairly and left out of social activities because of their differences. This can make it difficult for autistic people to make friends and find jobs. Some training programs have tried to teach autistic people to act more like non-autistic people to help them gain acceptance. Fewer have focused on teaching non-autistic people how to be more autism friendly. In this study, we used a short training video that teaches people about autism. The video was created with the help of autistic adults and included clips of real autistic people. We found that non-autistic people who watched this video had better knowledge about autism and showed more autism-friendly attitudes than those who watched a video about mental health or those who did not watch any video. They were more open to having a relationship with an autistic person and had more positive beliefs about autism. However, our video did not affect people’s unconscious attitudes about autism. People in our study connected autism with unpleasant traits, even if they had watched the autism training video. This suggests that teaching non-autistic people about autism may promote more autism-friendly attitudes, but some beliefs may be harder to change.

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Normocentric biases taint cognitive neuroscience and intervention of autism

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18002297 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Laurent Mottron

Keyword(s):

Intellectual Disability ◽

Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

Social Motivation ◽

Repetitive Behaviors ◽

Restricted Interests ◽

Autistic People

Abstract Stepping away from a normocentric understanding of autism goes beyond questioning the supposed lack of social motivation of autistic people. It evokes subversion of the prevalence of intellectual disability even in non-verbal autism. It also challenges the perceived purposelessness of some restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and instead interprets them as legitimate exploratory and learning-associated manifestations.

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What is taken for granted in autism research?

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x1800225x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michele Ilana Friedner

Keyword(s):

Research Methodologies ◽

Communicative Practices ◽

Autism Research ◽

Autistic People ◽

The Social ◽

New Research

Abstract This commentary focuses on three points: the need to consider semiotic ideologies of both researchers and autistic people, questions of commensurability, and problems with “the social” as an analytical concept. It ends with a call for new research methodologies that are not deficit-based and that consider a broad range of linguistic and non-linguistic communicative practices.

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“Second guessing yourself all the time about what they really mean…”: Cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic adults in understanding implied meaning

10.31234/osf.io/f6ksu ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Wilson ◽

Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop

Keyword(s):

Language Ability ◽

Test Format ◽

Cognitive Differences ◽

Autistic People ◽

Cognitive Preference ◽

Core Language ◽

Implied Meaning ◽

Cognitive Preferences ◽

Explicit Communication ◽

Selection Of

This study investigated cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic people in understanding implied meaning in conversation using a novel computerized test, the Implicature Comprehension Test. Controlling for core language ability, autistic participants (N = 66) were over twice as likely to endorse a non-normative interpretation of an implied meaning and over five times as likely to select ‘don’t know’ when asked about the presence of an implied meaning, compared to non-autistic participants (N = 118). A further experiment suggested that the selection of ‘don’t know’ reflected a cognitive preference for certainty and explicit communication, and that the normative inference could often be made when the test format was more constrained. Our research supports the hypothesis that autistic individuals can find it challenging to process language in its pragmatic context, and that cognitive preferences play a role in this.

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Camouflaging in non-autistic adults is associated with poorer mental health

10.31234/osf.io/myp4g ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Somerville ◽

Sarah E. MacPherson ◽

Sue Fletcher-Watson

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Executive Function ◽

Autistic Traits ◽

Self Report ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Mental Health Symptoms ◽

Health Symptoms ◽

Autistic People ◽

Autistic Adults ◽

The Relationship

Camouflaging is a frequently reported behaviour in autistic people, which entails the use of strategies to compensate for and mask autistic traits in social situations. Camouflaging is associated with poor mental health in autistic people. This study examined the manifestation of camouflaging in a non-autistic sample, examining the relationship between autistic traits, camouflaging, and mental health. In addition, the role of executive functions as a mechanism underpinning camouflaging was explored. Sixty-three non-autistic adults completed standardised self-report questionnaires which measured: autistic traits, mental health symptoms, and camouflaging behaviours. In addition, a subset (n=51) completed three tests of executive function measuring inhibition, working memory, and set-shifting. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyse data. Results indicated that autistic traits are not associated with mental health symptoms when controlling for camouflaging, and camouflaging predicted increased mental health symptoms. Camouflaging did not correlate with any measure of executive function. These findings have implications for understanding the relationship between autistic traits and mental health in non-autistic people and add to the growing development of theory and knowledge about the mechanism and effects of camouflaging.

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Initial Evidence for Increased Weather Salience in Autism Spectrum Conditions

10.31234/osf.io/pbh4v ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Matthew J. Bolton ◽

William G. Blumberg ◽

Lara K. Ault ◽

H. Michael Mogil ◽

Stacie H. Hanes

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Physical Disability ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽

Weather Information ◽

Autistic People ◽

Neurological Functioning ◽

Future Work ◽

Logical Rules ◽

Attention To Detail

Weather is important to all people, including vulnerable populations (those whose circumstances include cognitive processing, hearing, or vision differences, physical disability, homelessness, and other scenarios and factors). Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect information-processing and areas of neurological functioning that potentially inhibit the reception of hazardous weather information, and is of particular concern for weather messengers. People on the autism spectrum tend to score highly in tests of systemizing, a psychological process that heavily entails attention to detail and revolves around the creation of logical rules to explain things that occur in the world. This article reports the results of three preliminary studies examining weather salience–psychological attention to weather–and its potential relationships with systemizing in autistic people. Initial findings suggest that enhanced weather salience exists among autistic individuals compared to those without the condition, and that this may be related to systemizing. These findings reveal some possible strategies for communicating weather to autistic populations and motivate future work on a conceptual model that blends systemizing and chaos theory to better understand weather salience.

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