Initial evidence that non-clinical autistic traits are associated with lower income.
William J Skylark, Simon Baron-Cohen
PMID 29158888WHAT IT FOUND
Adults without a reported autism diagnosis who had more self-reported autistic traits reported lower household income and lower subjective social standing.
The link was observed at one point in time, so it does not show traits caused lower income.
Key findings
01After accounting for age, gender, education, and employment status, higher autistic traits were linked with lower net and adjusted household income.
02Higher autistic traits were linked with lower personal income and lower subjective social standing, even after accounting for objective income.
03The income link was mainly tied to social-behaviour traits, while interest in numbers and patterns was positively linked with personal income.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Participants were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk, so the samples are not perfectly representative of the US population. Studies 1 and 2 were not designed to test income, so their income findings are exploratory. The paper measured self-reported autistic traits and self-reported income, not diagnosed autism or objective financial records. The design is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether autistic traits led to lower income, lower income led to higher traits, or another factor caused both. Study 5 had a software malfunction that removed one measure for each participant, so education, employment, and subjective status were excluded from its main analyses. The associations were modest, and the authors say firm conclusions would be premature.
Declared interests
Funded by Wellcome Trust, Isaac Newton Trust, and Autism Research Trust. The supplied text does not state author conflicts.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic traits cause lower income. The paper measured traits and income at one point in time in adults without a reported autism diagnosis, and it says the causal direction is uncertain.