May Cynthia P, Whelpley Christopher E, Kaup Rachel
Department of Psychology, College of Charleston, 66 George St, Charleston, SC, 29424, USA.
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Jan 31. doi: 10.1007/s10803-024-06713-8.
Job interviews are often an integral component of the hiring process, but for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), job interviews can pose an unfair barrier to employment. Although employers may perceive candidates with ASD as qualified, they tend to reject those candidates in interviews because of atypical social interactions. This is true in situations in which evaluators are naïve to candidates' ASD diagnosis and have no training about neurodiversity. The present study explored whether diagnostic disclosure and/or increased ASD knowledge can reduce bias against ASD candidates.
We included three conditions: Disclosure-Only, Training-Only, and Training + Disclosure. In all conditions, participants watched mock job interviews of candidates with and without ASD, rated each candidate on several social dimensions, and indicated how likely they were to hire each candidate. In the Disclosure-Only condition, participants were informed prior to each video whether each interviewee had ASD. In the Training-Only condition, participants first completed a neurodiversity training session before watching and evaluating the interviews. The Training + Disclosure condition combined these interventions.
In the Disclosure-Only and Training-Only conditions, candidates with ASD were rated less favorably on social dimensions and were less likely to be hired relative to neurotypical (NT) candidates. In the Training + Disclosure condition, ASD candidates were equally likely to be hired as NT candidates, despite receiving less favorable ratings on some social dimensions.
Combining knowledge of ASD with diagnostic disclosure improves hiring outcomes for individuals with ASD.
求职面试通常是招聘过程中不可或缺的一部分，但对于患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的人来说，求职面试可能会成为就业的不公平障碍。尽管雇主可能认为患有ASD的候选人具备任职资格，但由于他们非典型的社交互动，雇主往往在面试中拒绝这些候选人。在评估者对候选人的ASD诊断不知情且未接受过神经多样性培训的情况下，情况确实如此。本研究探讨了披露诊断信息和/或增加对ASD的了解是否可以减少对患有ASD的候选人的偏见。
我们纳入了三种情况：仅披露、仅培训以及培训+披露。在所有情况下，参与者观看有无ASD的候选人的模拟求职面试，在几个社交维度上对每个候选人进行评分，并表明他们雇佣每个候选人的可能性有多大。在仅披露的情况下，参与者在观看每个视频之前被告知每位受访者是否患有ASD。在仅培训的情况下，参与者在观看和评估面试之前首先完成一次神经多样性培训课程。培训+披露的情况则将这些干预措施结合起来。
在仅披露和仅培训的情况下，与神经典型（NT）候选人相比，患有ASD的候选人在社交维度上的评分较低，被雇佣的可能性也较小。在培训+披露的情况下，尽管患有ASD的候选人在某些社交维度上的评分较低，但他们被雇佣的可能性与NT候选人相同。
将对ASD的了解与诊断信息披露相结合，可以改善患有ASD的人的招聘结果。
