The Effect of Labeling During Simulated Contact on Attitudes Toward Autistic Adults

Autistic adults are perceived more negatively than neurotypical (NT) adults by NT individuals. These negative perceptions can contribute to discrimination toward and social exclusion of autistic adults, which is detrimental to their mental and physical well-being. This study examined whether reading a vignette and imagining an interaction with a peer labeled as autistic would improve implicit and explicit attitudes toward autistic people.

NT adults (n = 120) read a vignette and were asked to imagine an interaction with an unfamiliar person who was either labeled as autistic or not and displayed perseverative behavior, limited eye contact, or no described behavior.

Overall, participants associated autistic terms with negative attributes rather than positive attributes, but those who imagined interacting with an individual labeled as autistic had less negative implicit bias toward autistic people than those who imagined interacting with a person without a label of autism. Explicit bias was not affected by the simulated scenario. When assessing some of the factors that are associated with implicit and explicit attitudes, we found that implicit attitudes and prior contact with autistic individuals were significantly related while controlling for Societal Attitudes towards Autism (SATA), while explicit attitudes were associated with SATA controlling for prior contact.

These findings suggest that a brief exercise in which participants imagine a positive encounter with a person labeled as autistic can reduce implicit bias toward autistic people.