Can you spot a liar? Deception, mindreading, and the case of autism spectrum disorder.
David M Williams, Toby Nicholson, Catherine Grainger and 2 others
PMID 29701910WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with ASD were less accurate at spotting lies, even when speakers gave clear cues.
In adults without an ASD diagnosis, more autistic traits were linked to poorer lie detection, but mindreading tests did not explain this.
Key findings
01In Experiment 2, adults with ASD were significantly less accurate than matched comparison adults at judging transparent liars and truth tellers.
02Among neurotypical adults, more self-reported ASD traits were associated with lower lie detection accuracy for transparent individuals, and this association remained after controlling for mindreading.
03Mindreading test scores were not associated with lie detection accuracy, and the ASD trait association remained after controlling for mindreading.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Experiment 1 studied university students with self-reported ASD traits, not people with diagnosed ASD, so it may not show how diagnosed adults perform. Experiment 2 had only 27 adults with ASD and 27 comparison adults, and the trait and symptom correlations were described as exploratory and not necessarily reliable. The lie detection task used 20 video clips about cheating in an experiment, so performance may not reflect everyday deception. The mindreading tasks were the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and an animations task, and the paper notes questions about whether these tasks reflect everyday social life. The study did not test any intervention, so it cannot show that training would improve lie detection. The study measured traits and lie detection at one time, so it does not show that ASD traits cause poorer lie detection.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report a conflict-of-interest declaration. The publication types list research support from non-U.S. government sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that a mindreading deficit causes poor lie detection in autism. The study found no association between mindreading test scores and lie detection accuracy, and it tested no therapy.