The effect of diagnostic information, autism knowledge, contact and autism stigma on people's ability to read autistic others

This study followed on from research by Sheppard et al. (2016) in which we found that non-autistic people are rather poor at reading the behaviour of autistic people. We investigated whether non-autistic people’s ability to read autistic individuals is influenced by providing diagnostic information, and by a person’s knowledge about autism, prior contact with autistic people, and autism stigma. Participants (N=128) viewed videos of autistic and non-autistic individuals reacting to events enacted by the researcher and inferred what event had taken place. Videos were presented either with no diagnostic information, a correct diagnostic label, or incorrect label (autistic individuals labelled as non-autistic and vice versa). Autism knowledge, contact with autistic people, and autism stigma were measured by questionnaires.

本研究延续了Sheppard等人（2016）的研究工作，该团队此前发现非自闭症个体（non-autistic people）在识别自闭症个体（autistic people）的行为表现时能力欠佳。本研究旨在探究：向非自闭症个体提供诊断相关信息、个体自身的自闭症知识储备、既往与自闭症群体的接触经历，以及自闭症污名化程度，是否会对其解读自闭症个体行为的能力产生影响。本研究共纳入128名参与者，让其观看自闭症个体与非自闭症个体对研究者编排的各类事件做出反应的视频，并推断视频中对应的具体事件。实验所使用的视频分为三种展示条件：无诊断信息、附带正确诊断标签，或附带错误诊断标签（即自闭症个体被标注为非自闭症个体，反之亦然）。研究通过问卷量表对参与者的自闭症知识、与自闭症群体的接触经历，以及自闭症污名化程度进行了测量。