CRAE’s Brett Heasman has just published a study on how autistic people are perceived by neurotypical people. Brett’s research used a computer game where 255 neurotypical players either believed they were playing with an autistic or non-autistic player. This player was actually an artificial confederate that was programmed to behave the same way across all interactions.

When neurotypical players believed they were playing with an autistic person, they perceived them as more intelligent and useful than when they believed they were playing with a neurotypical person. Moreover, when the neurotypical players believed they were playing with an autistic person they over-estimated how helpful they were compared to their autistic counterpart in completing the game collaboratively.

This research concurs with existing reports that the label of autism has a positive effect on social perception, leading to a higher perception of intelligence. The findings also suggest that people may perceive themselves as more helpful to autistic people than they actually are in their behaviour and actions. These findings help to explain why diagnostic disclosure can still result in negative discrimination; hence why disclosure not always straightforward.

Read the full paper here: https://bit.ly/2ZyPCm5