A cross-cultural examination of bi-directional mentalising in autistic and non-autistic adults.

The study used a computer animation task, not real conversation or clinical outcomes, so it may not show how autistic and non-autistic people communicate in daily life. The samples were not fully matched: Japanese autistic participants had mean FSIQ 105.12, compared with 113.44 in Japanese non-autistic participants, and UK autistic participants had mean age 31.64, compared with 24.33 in UK non-autistic participants. The cross-cultural difference in accuracy was exploratory, not pre-registered, so it should not be treated as a firm finding. Some autistic participants did not have confirmatory research diagnoses: eight of 25 UK participants and three of 25 Japanese participants. Recruitment differed between countries, which may have introduced sampling bias not captured by IQ or AQ scores. Cultural membership was defined by living in the country for at least 10 years, a cut-off the authors call arbitrary. The animations task may have limited cultural transferability, and high Japanese autistic accuracy may not reflect true social abilities.

Funding was reported from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Austrian Science Fund, a Medical Research Council studentship, the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, the JST-Mirai Program, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, and the University of Vienna. The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration.

Do not conclude that non-autistic people universally struggle to interpret autistic people's social cues. The UK sample showed this pattern, but the Japanese sample did not, and the animations task may not transfer across cultures.