Autistic Adults May Be Erroneously Perceived as Deceptive and Lacking Credibility.
Alliyza Lim, Robyn L Young, Neil Brewer
PMID 33730319WHAT IT FOUND
Viewers judged autistic adults who were telling the truth as more deceptive and lower in competence and character.
The measured behaviors did not differ between groups in this study, and telling viewers the person may have autism reduced deception and character differences.
Key findings
01Adults who watched the videos rated autistic targets as more deceptive and lower in competence and character than neurotypical targets.
02After viewers were told the person may have autism, the deception and character differences were no longer statistically significant, but competence remained lower.
03The individual behaviors did not support the hypothesized explanation for the judgments, and gaze aversion was the most commonly reported cue but did not predict deception or credibility after other behaviors were considered.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The videos included only 30 autistic and 29 neurotypical adults, and the measured behaviors did not differ significantly between groups, so the study cannot show that these behaviors are common in autistic adults. The judgment context was narrow: people watched an interview about money in a psychology lab, so it may not apply to clinical assessments, jobs, or legal settings. The study did not measure the observers' reasoning directly, so it cannot prove why negative judgments occurred. Poor reciprocity had poor inter-rater agreement, and flat affect was excluded from the main model because the outcome was highly disproportionate. The raters were online adults, not clinicians, and the autistic sample did not record socioeconomic status or education, while neurotypical targets were university students.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic adults are more deceptive or that gaze aversion causes negative judgments. The people in the videos all truthfully said they did not take the money, and the measured behaviors did not differ significantly between groups. This is a finding about observers' perceptions.