DeBrabander Kilee M, Morrison Kerrianne E, Jones Desiree R, Faso Daniel J, Chmielewski Mike, Sasson Noah J
School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas.
nonPareil Institute, Plano, Texas.
Autism Adulthood. 2019 Dec 1;1(4):250-257. doi: 10.1089/aut.2019.0018. Epub 2019 Dec 13.
Autistic adults receive unfavorable first impressions from typically developing (TD) adults, but these impressions improve when TD adults are made aware of their diagnosis. It remains unclear, however, how autistic adults form first impressions of other autistic adults, and whether their impressions are similarly affected by diagnostic awareness.
In this study, 32 autistic and 32 TD adults viewed brief videos of 20 TD and 20 autistic adults presented either with or without their diagnostic status and rated them on character traits and their interest in interacting with them in the future.
Findings indicated that autistic raters shared the TD tendency to evaluate autistic adults less favorably than TD adults, but these judgments did not reduce their social interest for interacting with autistic adults as they did for TD raters. Furthermore, informing raters of the diagnostic status of autistic adults did not improve first impressions for autistic raters as they did for TD raters, suggesting that autistic raters either already inferred their autism status when no diagnosis was provided or their impression formation is less affected by awareness of a person's diagnosis.
Collectively, these results demonstrate that autistic observers make trait inferences about autistic adults comparable with those made by TD observers-suggesting a similar sensitivity to perceiving and interpreting social signifiers that differ between TD and autistic presentation styles-but unlike their TD counterparts, these trait judgments are not perceived as an impediment to subsequent social interaction and are relatively consistent regardless of diagnostic disclosure.
Typically developing (TD) adults often form negative first impressions of autistic adults and report less of a desire to interact with them. These biases affect the social experiences of autistic adults and can contribute to their social disability. More optimistically, however, first impressions of autistic adults improve when TD adults are more knowledgeable about autism and are made aware of their diagnostic status, suggesting that familiarity and understanding can promote acceptance of autistic differences. One group that has high familiarity with autism is autistic adults themselves, but no study to date has examined how autistic adults form impressions of TD adults and other autistic adults. The purpose of this study was to examine whether first impressions of, and social interest in, autistic adults differ between autistic and TD raters, and determine whether disclosure of a person's diagnosis affects these patterns differently for autistic and TD raters. A total of 32 TD and 32 autistic adult raters viewed videos of 40 unfamiliar adults (20 TD and 20 autistic individuals) and rated each person on six traits (awkwardness, attractiveness, assertiveness, likeability, trustworthiness, and intelligence) and four items assessing their social interest in future interaction with the person in the video. Videos were presented either with or without the person's diagnosis to see whether this information affects impressions formed by autistic and TD raters. Consistent with prior work, TD raters formed more negative first impressions of autistic adults than TD adults. Meanwhile, autistic raters formed more positive impressions overall, but shared the TD pattern of rating autistic adults less favorably than TD adults on several traits. However, contrary to theories about reduced social motivation in autism, autistic raters expressed greater interest than TD raters in future interaction with people in the videos and this social interest was largest for other autistic people. Finally, diagnostic disclosure improved impressions of autistic adults made by TD raters but not by autistic raters. These findings provide empirical evidence that autistic adults detect and interpret autistic social differences similarly to TD adults, but they express greater inclusivity and less discriminatory attitudes about these differences. These results add to a growing literature about how autistic people are perceived, how these perceptions affect their social experiences, and how similarity between social partners can support social connection. The included sample was predominantly Caucasian and male, and did not include participants with intellectual disability. Future studies should examine whether the patterns here extend to more diverse samples. This study provides additional evidence that social opportunities for autistic adults are affected by the perceptions and biases of potential social partners. Autistic observers may share the TD bias toward less favorable trait evaluation of autistic adults, but this did not lessen their social interest in interacting with autistic adults the way it did for TD observers. Opportunities for autistic adults to interact with other autistic adults may facilitate relationship development in this population who often struggle to have their social needs met. In addition, findings suggest that acceptance of autistic people increases with familiarity of autism itself. Improving attitudes about autism among TD people may be one effective way to improve the social experiences of autistic people within neurotypical environments.
自闭症成年患者给典型发育（TD）的成年人留下的第一印象不佳，但当TD成年人知晓他们的诊断时，这些印象会有所改善。然而，目前尚不清楚自闭症成年人如何形成对其他自闭症成年人的第一印象，以及他们的印象是否同样受到诊断知晓情况的影响。
在本研究中，32名自闭症成年人和32名TD成年人观看了20名TD成年人和20名自闭症成年人的简短视频，视频展示了他们的诊断状态或未展示，然后对他们的性格特征以及未来与他们互动的兴趣进行评分。
研究结果表明，自闭症评分者与TD评分者一样，倾向于对自闭症成年人的评价不如对TD成年人的评价积极，但这些判断并没有像对TD评分者那样降低他们与自闭症成年人互动的社交兴趣。此外，告知评分者自闭症成年人的诊断状态并没有像对TD评分者那样改善自闭症评分者的第一印象，这表明自闭症评分者要么在未提供诊断时就已经推断出他们的自闭症状态，要么他们的印象形成较少受到对一个人诊断知晓情况的影响。
总体而言，这些结果表明，自闭症观察者对自闭症成年人的特质推断与TD观察者相当，这表明他们对感知和解释TD与自闭症表现风格不同的社交信号具有相似的敏感性，但与TD同行不同的是，这些特质判断并不被视为后续社交互动的障碍，并且无论诊断披露情况如何都相对一致。
典型发育（TD）的成年人通常会对自闭症成年人形成负面的第一印象，并表示与他们互动的意愿较低。这些偏见会影响自闭症成年人的社交体验，并导致他们的社交障碍。然而，更乐观的是，当TD成年人对自闭症有更多了解并知晓自闭症成年人的诊断状态时，对他们的第一印象会有所改善，这表明熟悉和理解可以促进对自闭症差异的接受。对自闭症非常熟悉的一个群体是自闭症成年人自身，但迄今为止没有研究考察自闭症成年人如何形成对TD成年人和其他自闭症成年人的印象。本研究的目的是考察自闭症评分者和TD评分者对自闭症成年人的第一印象以及社交兴趣是否存在差异，并确定一个人的诊断披露对自闭症评分者和TD评分者的这些模式是否有不同影响。共有32名TD成年人和32名自闭症成年评分者观看了40名不熟悉成年人（20名TD成年人和20名自闭症成年人）的视频，并对每个人的六个特质（笨拙、吸引力、自信、可爱、可信赖和智力）以及四个项目进行评分，这些项目评估了他们未来与视频中的人互动的社交兴趣。视频展示了或未展示这个人的诊断，以查看此信息是否会影响自闭症评分者和TD评分者形成的印象。与先前的研究一致，TD评分者对自闭症成年人的第一印象比对TD成年人的印象更负面。与此同时，自闭症评分者总体上形成了更积极的印象，但在几个特质上对自闭症成年人的评价不如对TD成年人积极，这与TD评分者的模式相同。然而，与关于自闭症社交动机降低的理论相反，自闭症评分者比TD评分者对未来与视频中的人互动表现出更大的兴趣，并且这种社交兴趣对其他自闭症患者最大。最后，诊断披露改善了TD评分者对自闭症成年人的印象，但没有改善自闭症评分者的印象。这些发现提供了实证证据，表明自闭症成年人与TD成年人一样能够检测和解释自闭症社交差异，但他们对这些差异表现出更大的包容性和更少的歧视态度。这些结果进一步丰富了关于自闭症患者如何被看待、这些看法如何影响他们的社交体验以及社交伙伴之间的相似性如何支持社交联系的文献资料。纳入的样本主要是白种人和男性，不包括有智力障碍的参与者。未来的研究应该考察这里的模式是否适用于更多样化的样本。本研究提供了额外的证据，表明自闭症成年人的社交机会受到潜在社交伙伴的看法和偏见的影响。自闭症观察者可能与TD观察者一样，对自闭症成年人的特质评价倾向于不那么积极，但这并没有像对TD观察者那样减少他们与自闭症成年人互动的社交兴趣。自闭症成年人与其他自闭症成年人互动的机会可能会促进这个群体的关系发展，他们往往难以满足自己的社交需求。此外，研究结果表明，对自闭症患者的接受程度会随着对自闭症本身的熟悉程度而增加。改善TD人群对自闭症的态度可能是改善自闭症患者在神经典型环境中的社交体验的一种有效方法。
