Autistic People Think Quite Similar to Those Without Autism, New Study Suggests

Findings from a recently published study revealed fundamental similarities between people with autism and those who don't have mental processing.

A EurekAlert! report specified that the brain processes information "using two systems." These include System 1 used for faster intuitive judgments, and System 2, for slower rational thinking."

Such systems work differently in autistic people, underlying the difficulties they may encounter in their daily lives and the workplace.

Nonetheless, landmark research from the universities of Bath, Cardiff, Manchester, and King's College London has reported that these fundamental psychological systems are not damaged in people with autism as previously thought.

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Young women use modeling dough as they work with children with autism.

Link Between Autism and Fast Intuitive and Slow Rational Thinking

'In large research of its kind involving more than 1,000 people, the researchers tested the link between autism and "fast" intuitive and "slow" rational thinking.

In three experiments, the researchers analyzed the association between autistic personality characteristics and thinking style. In the fourth, they compared 200 autistic people with 200 non-autistic people.

Overall, their results revealed that autistic people think as fast and rationally as non-autistic people.  The study authors concluded that "certain, fundamental processes" are more similar to autistic and non-autistic individuals than once thought.

In the light of such findings, the researchers have called for a change in how society thinks about autism as a mental processing disorder.

They have also recommended that it might be essential to redesign the workplace, educational and clinical support for autistic people, and their families.

Mental Difficulties in Autism

Commenting on their recommendation, the study investigators said support needs to be more targeted, rather than assuming that autistic people all have mental processing difficulties.

In this study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, the researchers have argued that the requirement to make "reasonable adjustments" in education and commercial organizations, underpinned by the Equality Act, like allowing additional time in examinations and extending deadlines, is not an evidence-based approach to support neurodivergent people.

Rather, more fundamental changes might be needed, like changing sensory and social environments and making them more equitable for people with autism to thrive.

Associate professor of Psychology Dr. Punit Shah, from the University of Bath and the GW4 Neurodevelopmental Neurodiversity network said, there is a tradition of investigating mental difficulties in autism.

Similarities Between 'Neurodivergent' and 'Neurotipycal' People

While this can be essential for developing clinical interventions, there is a need to understand psychological similarities between different groups.

The University of Bath is doing groundbreaking work on this, exhibiting that there is frequently more uniting than dividing the researchers, and their new neurodiversity study is another step in this direction.

Many employers and organizations assume that neurodiversity is simply about celebrating differences between people. Nonetheless, a comprehensive approach to neurodiversity needs to understand and celebrate similarities between "neurodivergent" and "neurotypical people, as well.

Dr. Shah said if autistic people and broader society are kept on being told that autistic people are thinking differently, however well-intentioned it might be, that will result in stereotyping and self-stereotyping like that autistic people turn out to be limited to thinking in certain ways and thus doing certain jobs.

Their study, as indicated in a similar Mirage News report, does not back the said idea; instead, it specified that autistic people often think in a manner quite similar to non-autistic people, and they need not be restricted to certain tasks in educational and workplace backgrounds.

Related information about autism is shown on McGovern Institute's YouTube video below:

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Check out more news and information on Autism in Science Times.