Autistic people differ from non-autistic people subjectively, but not objectively in their reasoning.
Elif Bastan, Sarah R Beck, Andrew Dr Surtees
PMID 39387554WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults reported relying less on intuition than non-autistic adults, but this did not match their test performance.
When groups were matched for cognitive ability, there was no objective difference in reasoning style or moral decision-making.
Key findings
01Autistic participants self-reported significantly lower intuition (experientiality) than non-autistic participants.
02Contrary to expectations, autistic participants scored higher on intuitive errors and showed a trend towards lower deliberative accuracy on the objective reasoning test.
03There was no significant difference between autistic and non-autistic groups in how they made social or non-social moral judgments when cognitive ability was matched.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (24 per group), limiting the ability to detect subtle differences. Participants were predominantly highly educated and White, recruited from a university database, which may not represent the broader autistic community. Response times were not recorded, so the study could not assess if autistic participants took longer to reach the same conclusions. The study used an artificial laboratory environment, which may not reflect real-world decision-making complexities.
Declared interests
The author E.B. was funded by the Ministry of National Education, Republic of Turkiye. The funder played no direct role in the research or submission. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the self-reported preference for deliberation in autistic adults as evidence of superior objective rationality or enhanced reasoning performance. The study found that autistic participants' actual test performance did not support greater deliberation, and in some measures, they displayed more intuitive responses than the comparison group.