[Douglas MacNeill]

A study from Texas indicates that Neurologically Typical persons make robust judgments about persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders from seeing or hearing them speak. These judgments take only a few seconds to make; they also suggest that persons with ASDs are less approachable, more awkward, less likely to start a conversation, more likely to spend time alone, and less likely to get along well with others than their NT peers. Many of these findings are significant at the 0.001 level--there is less than one chance in a thousand that these findings could be due to chance alone.

Here's a link to the web page:
Neurotypical Peers are Less Willing to Interact with Those with Autism based on Thin Slice Judgments : Scientific Reports

[leejosepho]

Collectively, these findings advocate for a broader perspective...that considers both the individual’s impairments and the biases of potential social partners.

That fact that I am different might be an impairment in a social situation, but that does not mean my difference is the impairment. The impairment is the other person's bias or ignorance (lack of knowledge) as evidenced in the absence of the broader perspective being suggested.

Originally Posted by leejosepho

That fact that I am different might be an impairment in a social situation, but that does not mean my difference is the impairment. The impairment is the other person's bias or ignorance (lack of knowledge) as evidenced in the absence of the broader perspective being suggested.

Then perhaps work on changing the bias?

I am not on the spectrum but do have my own MH struggles. I read this forum because I know someone on the spectrum and he won't open up to me in the least.

Biases don't end without change.

And as someone who is outside of normal for different reasons, it is up to me to make the adjustments rather than stay steadfast in my thoughts and beliefs. The world isn't going to change for me, rather I have to change myself so that I can function in the world. It has always been like this and it will always be like this----across the board, for every disorder out there.

[leejosepho]

Originally Posted by GoldenWaves

I know someone on the spectrum and he won't open up to me in the least...

And as someone who is outside of normal for different reasons, it is up to me to make the adjustments rather than stay steadfast in my thoughts and beliefs.

I am not in any way suggesting anyone remain steadfast in thoughts and beliefs. I am only saying the fact I am different than most people does not prove there is something wrong with me and/or that I need to change to be found acceptable or likable by others.

[Cyllya]

Apparently it's not something you said, since the raters were cool with the transcripts.

I appreciate the fact that they even did this kind of study. I feel like a lot of researchers (and other people) don't bother to make any cognitive distinction between "problems actually caused by the disorder" and "problems caused by other people reacting to the fact that you have the disorder." The actual results of the study are interesting too.

Although it was weird that they considered some of the rated traits to be positive or negative instead of neutral. Like "has lots of friends" is good and "spends a lot of time by themselves" is apparently a bad thing? Why? Well, it doesn't detract from the point they were making.

One thing that might be useful to note... they used the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS) to confirm the autism status of adult subjects. At least for diagnosing adults, a good chunk of the ADOS seems to revolve around the diagnostician's subjective opinion of how awkward you. So most unawkward autistic adults presumably would have been excluded. (Although the chart from Study 2 showed there was one outlier who was not rated awkward.) This isn't criticism of the study; since the ADOS is the so-called "gold standard" of autism diagnosis, it's pretty much what they have to use whether they like it or not. It's just something to keep in mind when considering the implications of this study.

I believe my own awkwardness level changes considerably depending on whether I'm on my ADHD meds. This is because trying to talk takes a lot more working memory capability than I naturally have.

I got a bit of a chuckle out of this:

In contrast, ratings for the [typically developing] group were generally consistent across all modalities, with significant differences only emerging for the silent video modality producing more favorable ratings than the transcript modality for intelligence... likeability... and intent to talk to ...

(If I understand correctly, this means the NTs were rated as more likeable and intelligent when the raters couldn't actually hear what they were saying!)