Alhusayni Afaf, Sheppard Elizabeth, Marsh Lauren
School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.
Autism Adulthood. 2025 Aug 11;7(4):493-504. doi: 10.1089/aut.2024.0107. eCollection 2025 Aug.
Previous research has shown that, when presented with brief samples of behavior, non-autistic university students judge autistic peers less favorably than non-autistic peers on measures of academic experience (e.g., motivation to study, academic success, average grades). The current research aimed to determine whether these judgments accurately reflect the academic experiences of the autistic students, or represent a bias of non-autistic perceivers. We also investigated whether autistic students are aware of how they are perceived by their peers.
Nineteen autistic and 19 non-autistic students (stimulus participants) were video recorded while completing a questionnaire about their academic experience. They self-reported their level of academic success, motivation to study, happiness at university, and average grades. They also reported their meta-perceptions about the same measures. Recorded videos were presented to 30 new non-autistic students (perceivers), who were asked to judge each stimulus participants' academic success, motivation to study, happiness at university, and grades.
Autistic stimulus participants were rated less positively than non-autistic stimulus participants on all measures except motivation to study. Comparison with participants' self-reports showed that perceivers' judgments had a strong negative bias for ratings of autistic stimulus participants, but this bias was also present for non-autistic stimulus participants on some measures. Comparison of perceiver perceptions with stimulus participants' meta-perceptions showed that neither group of participants was aware how they were perceived, and the autistic group expected to be perceived in an overly positive way.
We replicated previous research showing autistic people are perceived less favorably by non-autistic others in relation to their academic experience. As the perceptions were not accurate, we suggest this reflects a persistent bias in the perception of autistic people. Nevertheless, over time this bias could genuinely impact academic outcomes of autistic students, if it leads to exclusion from social and peer learning opportunities.
先前的研究表明，当面对简短的行为样本时，非自闭症大学生在学术体验指标（如学习动机、学业成就、平均成绩）上对自闭症同龄人做出的评价不如对非自闭症同龄人那样积极。当前的研究旨在确定这些评价是准确反映了自闭症学生的学术体验，还是代表了非自闭症感知者的偏见。我们还调查了自闭症学生是否意识到他们在同龄人眼中的形象。
19名自闭症学生和19名非自闭症学生（刺激参与者）在完成一份关于他们学术体验的问卷时被录像。他们自我报告了自己的学业成就水平、学习动机、在大学的幸福感以及平均成绩。他们还报告了对相同指标的元认知。录制的视频被展示给30名新的非自闭症学生（感知者），要求他们对每个刺激参与者的学业成就、学习动机、在大学的幸福感和成绩进行评价。
除了学习动机外，在所有指标上，自闭症刺激参与者的评分都低于非自闭症刺激参与者。与参与者的自我报告相比，感知者的评价对自闭症刺激参与者的评分有很强的负面偏见，但在某些指标上，这种偏见在非自闭症刺激参与者中也存在。将感知者的看法与刺激参与者的元认知进行比较，结果显示两组参与者都没有意识到他们在他人眼中的形象，并且自闭症组期望被以过度积极的方式看待。
我们重复了先前的研究，表明在学术体验方面，非自闭症者对自闭症者的评价较低。由于这些看法并不准确，我们认为这反映了对自闭症者认知中持续存在的偏见。然而，如果这种偏见导致自闭症学生被排除在社交和同伴学习机会之外，随着时间的推移，它可能会真正影响自闭症学生的学业成绩。
