Study debunks a popular myth about autism and social insight.
People with autistic traits make good social psychologists.
Social psychology is the study of how people behave in groups.
It seeks insights into how people influence each other, interact together and more.
When given tests of social psychological knowledge, people with autistic tendencies do as well, or slightly better, than those without autistic traits.
The finding might come as a surprise, since people with autism typically find it harder to judge the mental states of others.
However, people who have autistic traits may do better on the test by relying on analytical skills.
Their improved analytical skills may result from paying closer attention to patterns in people’s behaviour.
Autistic insight
For the study, 6,595 people in 104 countries were given a quiz of standard social psychological findings.
The questions included things like:
- Do people feel more responsible for their behavior in groups than as individuals?
- Does catharsis/venting work: If I am angry, will taking out my hostilities on a stuffed doll make me feel better?
- On average, do people work harder in groups or as individuals?
(Answers at the bottom.)
Mr Anton Gollwitzer, the study’s first author, explained the results:
“People with ASD traits seem to be able to analyze how people in general will react in a social situation, even if they have difficulties judging the mental states of individuals.”
People with autistic traits may develop stronger analytical social psychological skills because of their difficulties determining the mental and cognitive states of other people’s minds, the authors think.
Answers
The answers are:
- People feel more responsible as individuals than in groups (see: deindividuation).
- Catharsis does not work (see: venting).
- People work harder as individuals than in groups (see: social loafing).
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Gollwitzer et al., 2019).
