The relationship between newspaper reading preferences and attitudes towards autism.

The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that reading certain newspapers causes negative attitudes; people with existing negative attitudes might simply choose those newspapers. The sample was recruited online and was not representative of the general population, having more women, younger adults, and left-leaning individuals. The study did not measure whether participants actually read articles about autism, only their general newspaper preferences. Statistical weighting by newspaper exposure was necessary to find significant effects, meaning results might not apply to people who rarely read newspapers. Unexpected findings regarding gender and contact with autistic people contradict previous research, suggesting possible sample-specific biases.

Partially funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant. Authors declared no other conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that reading tabloids causes stigma. The study only shows an association, and the direction of causality is unknown. Also, do not assume these findings apply to clinical populations; the participants were non-autistic adults recruited from an online survey platform.