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. 2024 Jul;28(7):1828-1837.
doi: 10.1177/13623613231211457. Epub 2023 Nov 18.

Mindreading beliefs in same- and cross-neurotype interactions

Elizabeth Sheppard  1 , Sophie Webb  1 , Helen Wilkinson  1
Affiliations

Mindreading beliefs in same- and cross-neurotype interactions

Elizabeth Sheppard et al. Autism. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

Autistic people are often characterised as having problems with mindreading, which refers to understanding other people's thoughts, beliefs and feelings. However, it has recently been suggested that mindreading difficulties may be a two-way issue between autistic and non-autistic people. This would imply that autistic people may not have difficulty reading the minds of other autistic people, whereas non-autistic people may struggle to read autistic people effectively. In this study, we created a survey in which we asked a relatively large sample of autistic and non-autistic people to rate their own and others' mindreading abilities in relation to autistic and non-autistic others, respectively. Both groups believed that they were better at reading others in their own group than the other group. The autistic respondents reported levels of mindreading skill at least commensurate with the non-autistic respondents when the mind to be read was specified as autistic. Thus, both groups of participants' responses were consistent with the notion that mindreading abilities are relational. Although self-reports are subjective, such beliefs could have important consequences for well-being and intergroup relations.

Keywords: autism; double empathy; mindreading beliefs.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe 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.
Mean mindreading belief scores for autistic and non-autistic participants when judging their own abilities.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mean mindreading belief scores for autistic and non-autistic participants when judging other people’s abilities to read them.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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