Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic "Impairments" Using Relevance Theory

Area of Science:

• Neurodiversity and Communication Studies
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Autism is characterized by social communication challenges.
• The double empathy problem highlights bidirectional communication difficulties between autistic and non-autistic individuals.
• Relevance theory offers a cognitive framework for understanding utterance interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore communication dynamics between autistic individuals using relevance theory.
• To investigate the impact of interlocutor pairing (autistic/autistic vs. autistic/non-autistic) on mutual understanding.
• To examine how embodied experiences influence communication salience and interpretation.

Main Methods:

• A linguistic ethnographic study involving eight autistic participants.
• Naturalistic conversations on loneliness with familiar partners, non-autistic strangers, and autistic strangers.
• Analysis of conversational interactions through the lens of relevance theory.

Main Results:

• Unexpectedly high mutual understanding was observed across all conversation types.
• Conversations between two autistic participants showed significantly increased flow, rapport, and intersubjective attunement.
• In some cases, autistic individuals demonstrated improved communicative competence when conversing with other autistic individuals.

Conclusions:

• Relevance theory provides a valuable framework for understanding autistic communication.
• The findings challenge deficit-based models, emphasizing the role of mutual recognition in communication.
• Interventions should focus on fostering shared relevance and mutual understanding to improve communication between autistic and non-autistic people.