The relationship between newspaper reading preferences and attitudes towards autism

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Media Studies
• Autism Research

Background:

• Newspapers, particularly tabloids and right-leaning publications, can perpetuate negative stereotypes of Autistic people.
• Understanding the relationship between media consumption and public attitudes towards autism is crucial for promoting inclusivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how newspaper reading preferences and trust relate to both explicit and implicit attitudes towards autism in non-autistic adults.
• To investigate the influence of specific newspaper types, such as right-leaning tabloids, on public perceptions of autism.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed 277 UK-based non-autistic adults on newspaper reading habits, trust, autism knowledge, explicit attitudes, and implicit biases.
• Utilized generalized additive models and hierarchical partitioning to analyze the variance explained by reading preferences and other factors.
• Employed an implicit association task to measure subconscious biases towards autism.

Main Results:

• Newspaper-related factors explained 4.5% of variance in explicit and 10.7% in implicit attitudes towards autism.
• Selective engagement with right-leaning tabloids was associated with more negative implicit attitudes.
• Higher trust in newspapers correlated with less accurate autism knowledge, and selective trust in tabloids predicted mixed explicit/implicit attitudes.

Conclusions:

• Engagement with media portraying autism negatively is linked to increased implicit biases, even with neutral explicit attitudes.
• Media ecosystems significantly influence public perceptions and subconscious reactions towards Autistic people.
• Findings underscore the importance of balanced and respectful media reporting for fostering autism acceptance.