Mindreading beliefs in same- and cross-neurotype interactions.
Elizabeth Sheppard, Sophie Webb, Helen Wilkinson
PMID 37978869WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic and non-autistic people both believe they read their own group better than the other.
They also believe others from their own group understand them better. Contact with autistic people did not improve non-autistic participants' belief in their ability to read them.
Key findings
01Both autistic and non-autistic participants believed they were better at reading minds when the target was someone from their own neurotype, rather than the other.
02Participants believed that people from their own neurotype were better at understanding them, while those from the other neurotype found them harder to read.
03Having more contact with autistic people was associated with slightly less perceived difficulty in reading autistic minds for the whole sample, but this relationship disappeared when looking at autistic and non-autistic groups separately.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study measured beliefs about mindreading, not actual mindreading ability. There is no evidence these beliefs match performance. The sample was recruited online from specific communities, which may bias results toward those already engaged with autism-related topics. Women were over-represented in both groups, which does not reflect general population gender ratios. The measure of 'contact' was crude, counting categories (e.g., family, friends) rather than frequency or quality of interaction. Autistic participants were largely self-identified; only 92 had a formal diagnosis, and diagnosis status was not independently verified.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these results as evidence that autistic people lack mindreading skills or that non-autistic people possess them. The study only reports what participants believe about themselves and others. Non-autistic participants believed they were generally better at mindreading, but this was largely because they felt confident reading other non-autistic people. Both groups believed they struggled to read the other.