Communication Efficiency in Autism is Unaffected by Neurotype Match: Findings From a Collaborative Referencing Task

Autism is associated with social interaction and communication difficulties. The theory of the double empathy problem challenges the idea that these difficulties are inherent to autism, arguing that they rather stem from a mismatch between neurologically different interaction partners. The theory predicts communication between two individuals with autism to have less difficulties than between individuals with and without autism. This is indeed what experience-based studies have found. However, it remains unclear whether these interactions are actually more efficient.

We examined dyadic interactions in 62 adults with and without autism. All participants were between 20 and 50 years old and had an IQ above 80. Each participant completed a collaborative referencing task twice, once with a same-neurotype partner and once with a different-neurotype partner, resulting in 14 autism dyads, 14 no-autism dyads, and 30 mixed dyads. During the task, participants worked together to place abstract figures in the correct order across multiple rounds.

Communication for all dyads became more efficient over time. Contrary to our hypothesis, communication was not more efficient for same-neurotype dyads.

These findings challenge key predictions of the double empathy theory, as same neurotype dyads (both no-autism and autism dyads) did not communicate more efficiently than mixed-neurotype dyads. Further research is needed to better understand why individuals with autism do report smoother and more positive communication with others with autism than with those without autism.