Children’s and adults’ thinking about autism spectrum disorder: Conceptualizations, dehumanization, and willingness for inclusion

Abstract

Participants were 82 children aged 9–11 and 169 adults aged 18–65, majority White European; data were collected in Northern Ireland between January and June 2022. Children’s awareness of autism was assessed by asking what they know about autism. Children and adults also judged the extent to which a hypothetical autistic peer had capacity for mental experiences (emotions and personality traits). Emotions and personality traits varied between non-uniquely, or uniquely human, and the effect of valence (positive/negative) was also examined. We describe the extent to which children and adults attribute capacity for mental experiences to an autistic peer, and examine potential dehumanization of the peer through relative denial of uniquely human mental experiences. Denial of uniquely human mental experiences predicted how happy participants expected themselves (adults) and others (children and adults) to be about including the peer. Findings suggest children of this age hold fairly accurate representations of autism, and that dehumanization of autistic people may contribute to their exclusion by neurotypical peers.