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. 2018 Feb;22(2):118-125.
doi: 10.1177/1362361317727125. Epub 2017 Aug 21.

Do puzzle pieces and autism puzzle piece logos evoke negative associations?

Morton Ann Gernsbacher  1 , Adam R Raimond  1 , Jennifer L Stevenson  2 , Jilana S Boston  1 , Bev Harp  3
Affiliations

Do puzzle pieces and autism puzzle piece logos evoke negative associations?

Morton Ann Gernsbacher et al. Autism. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Puzzle pieces have become ubiquitous symbols for autism. However, puzzle-piece imagery stirs debate between those who support and those who object to its use because they believe puzzle-piece imagery evokes negative associations. Our study empirically investigated whether puzzle pieces evoke negative associations in the general public. Participants' ( N = 400) implicit negative associations were measured with an Implicit Association Task, which is a speeded categorization task, and participants' explicit associations were measured with an Explicit Association Task, which is a standard task for assessing consumers' explicit associations with brands (and images of those brands). Puzzle pieces, both those used as autism logos and those used more generically, evoked negative implicit associations ( t(399) = -5.357, p < 0.001) and negative explicit associations ( z = 4.693, p < 0.001, d = 0.491). Participants explicitly associated puzzle pieces, even generic puzzle pieces, with incompleteness, imperfection, and oddity. Our results bear public policy implications. If an organization's intention for using puzzle-piece imagery is to evoke negative associations, our results suggest the organization's use of puzzle-piece imagery is apt. However, if the organization's intention is to evoke positive associations, our results suggest that puzzle-piece imagery should probably be avoided.

Keywords: IAT; Implicit Association Test; free associations; puzzle.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example Implicit Association trials for Generic-Material-Set A.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example Implicit Association trials for Logo-Material-Set A.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Participants’ mean correct latencies (left side of figure) and error rates (right side of figure) for categorizing images as PUZZLE pieces or SHAPEs when paired with NEGATIVE or POSITIVE concepts. Error bars are 99.9% confidence intervals (CIs) of the mean.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of participants’ Implicit Association Scores. The dashed line at zero indicates zero negative or positive implicit bias.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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