1 The University of Texas at Dallas, USA.
2 nonPareil Institute, USA.
Autism. 2019 Oct;23(7):1817-1829. doi: 10.1177/1362361318824104. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
Previous work indicates that first impressions of autistic adults are more favorable when neurotypical raters know their clinical diagnosis and have high understanding about autism, suggesting that social experiences of autistic adults are affected by the knowledge and beliefs of the neurotypical individuals they encounter. Here, we examine these patterns in more detail by assessing variability in first impression ratings of autistic adults ( = 20) by neurotypical raters ( = 505). Variability in ratings was driven more by characteristics of raters than those of autistic adults, particularly for items related to "intentions to interact." Specifically, variability in rater stigma toward autism and autism knowledge contributed to first impression ratings. Only ratings of "awkwardness" were driven more by characteristics of the autistic adults than characteristics of the raters. Furthermore, although first impressions of autistic adults generally improved when raters were informed of their autism status, providing a diagnosis worsened impressions made by neurotypical raters with high stigma toward autism. Variations in how the diagnosis was labeled (e.g. "autistic" vs "has autism") did not affect results. These findings indicate a large role of neurotypical perceptions and biases in shaping the social experiences for autistic adults that may be improved by reducing stigma and increasing acceptance.
先前的研究表明，当神经典型的评估者了解自闭症患者的临床诊断并对自闭症有较高的了解时，他们对成年自闭症患者的第一印象更为正面，这表明成年自闭症患者的社交体验受到他们所遇到的神经典型个体的知识和信念的影响。在这里，我们通过评估神经典型评估者（n=505）对成年自闭症患者（n=20）的第一印象评分的可变性，更详细地研究了这些模式。评分的可变性更多地取决于评估者的特征，而不是自闭症患者的特征，特别是与“互动意向”相关的项目。具体来说，评估者对自闭症的污名和自闭症知识的可变性导致了第一印象的评分。只有“尴尬”的评分更多地取决于自闭症患者的特征，而不是评估者的特征。此外，尽管当评估者被告知自闭症患者的状况时，他们对成年自闭症患者的第一印象通常会有所改善，但提供诊断会使对自闭症有较高污名的神经典型评估者的印象恶化。诊断的标签方式（例如“自闭症”与“患有自闭症”）的变化不会影响结果。这些发现表明，神经典型的认知和偏见在塑造成年自闭症患者的社交体验方面起着重要作用，减少污名和提高接受度可能会改善这种情况。
