Autistic Adults May Be Erroneously Perceived As Deceptive and Lacking Credibility

Overview

Journal J Autism Dev Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2021 Mar 17

PMID 33730319

Citations 14

Authors

Alliyza Lim

Robyn L Young

Neil Brewer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We hypothesized that autistic adults may be erroneously judged as deceptive or lacking credibility due to demonstrating unexpected and atypical behaviors. Thirty autistic and 29 neurotypical individuals participated in video-recorded interviews, and we measured their demonstration of gaze aversion, repetitive body movements, literal interpretation of figurative language, poor reciprocity, and flat affect. Participants (N = 1410) viewed one of these videos and rated their perception of the individual's truthfulness or credibility. The hypothesis was partially supported, with autistic individuals perceived as more deceptive and less credible than neurotypical individuals when telling the truth. However, this relationship was not influenced by the presence of any of the target behaviors, but instead, by the individual's overall presentation.

Citing Articles

How Long Does it Last? The Enduring Benefits of Neurodiversity Training and Diagnostic Disclosure on Hiring Outcomes for Adults with ASD.

May C, Whelpley C, Moyer L, Feingold L J Autism Dev Disord. 2025; .

PMID: 39964656 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-025-06751-w.

Changing Outcomes for Job Candidates with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Benefits of Neurodiversity Training and ASD Disclosure.

May C, Whelpley C, Kaup R J Autism Dev Disord. 2025; .

PMID: 39888555 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06713-8.

The Narrative Coherence of Autistic Children's Accounts of an Experienced Event in Response to Different Interviewer Prompts: A Longitudinal Study.

Almeida T, Yang F, Zhang H, Lamb M J Autism Dev Disord. 2024; .

PMID: 39731682 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06675-x.

The contributory role of an autistic presentation to miscarriage of justice in a high-profile murder case in New Zealand.

Allely C, McKinnel T, Chisnall N Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2024; 31(6):1098-1113.

PMID: 39678696 PMC: 11639069. DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2023.2260846.

Mock Juror Perceptions of Eyewitness Reports Given by Children with Intellectual Disabilities.

McDowell K, Wyman J, Talwar V J Autism Dev Disord. 2024; .

PMID: 39325283 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06561-6.

References

Feinstein A, Cicchetti D . High agreement but low kappa: I. The problems of two paradoxes. J Clin Epidemiol. 1990; 43(6):543-9. DOI: 10.1016/0895-4356(90)90158-l. View

Preacher K, Hayes A . Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behav Res Methods. 2008; 40(3):879-91. DOI: 10.3758/brm.40.3.879. View

Stagg S, Slavny R, Hand C, Cardoso A, Smith P . Does facial expressivity count? How typically developing children respond initially to children with autism. Autism. 2013; 18(6):704-11. DOI: 10.1177/1362361313492392. View

Paul R, Orlovski S, Marcinko H, Volkmar F . Conversational behaviors in youth with high-functioning ASD and Asperger syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord. 2008; 39(1):115-25. PMC: 2819316. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-008-0607-1. View

Kelley H, Michela J . Attribution theory and research. Annu Rev Psychol. 2010; 31:457-501. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.ps.31.020180.002325. View

Gwet K . Computing inter-rater reliability and its variance in the presence of high agreement. Br J Math Stat Psychol. 2008; 61(Pt 1):29-48. DOI: 10.1348/000711006X126600. View

Heath W . Arresting and convicting the innocent: the potential role of an "inappropriate" emotional display in the accused. Behav Sci Law. 2009; 27(3):313-32. DOI: 10.1002/bsl.864. View

Cage E, Troxell-Whitman Z . Understanding the Reasons, Contexts and Costs of Camouflaging for Autistic Adults. J Autism Dev Disord. 2019; 49(5):1899-1911. PMC: 6483965. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-03878-x. View

Fecteau S, Mottron L, Berthiaume C, Burack J . Developmental changes of autistic symptoms. Autism. 2003; 7(3):255-68. DOI: 10.1177/1362361303007003003. View

10.

Klin A, Jones W, Schultz R, Volkmar F, Cohen D . Defining and quantifying the social phenotype in autism. Am J Psychiatry. 2002; 159(6):895-908. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.159.6.895. View

11.

Riby D, Hancock P . Viewing it differently: social scene perception in Williams syndrome and autism. Neuropsychologia. 2008; 46(11):2855-60. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.05.003. View

12.

Melinder A, Burrell L, Eriksen M, Magnussen S, Wessel E . The Emotional Child Witness Effect Survives Presentation Mode. Behav Sci Law. 2016; 34(1):113-25. DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2232. View

13.

Wongpakaran N, Wongpakaran T, Wedding D, Gwet K . A comparison of Cohen's Kappa and Gwet's AC1 when calculating inter-rater reliability coefficients: a study conducted with personality disorder samples. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2013; 13:61. PMC: 3643869. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2288-13-61. View

14.

Cunningham A, Schreibman L . Stereotypy in Autism: The Importance of Function. Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2009; 2(3):469-479. PMC: 2598746. DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2007.09.006. View

15.

Litman L, Robinson J, Abberbock T . TurkPrime.com: A versatile crowdsourcing data acquisition platform for the behavioral sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2016; 49(2):433-442. PMC: 5405057. DOI: 10.3758/s13428-016-0727-z. View

16.

Martinez-Murcia F, Lai M, Gorriz J, Ramirez J, Young A, Deoni S . On the brain structure heterogeneity of autism: Parsing out acquisition site effects with significance-weighted principal component analysis. Hum Brain Mapp. 2016; 38(3):1208-1223. PMC: 5324567. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23449. View

17.

Preacher K, Zyphur M, Zhang Z . A general multilevel SEM framework for assessing multilevel mediation. Psychol Methods. 2010; 15(3):209-33. DOI: 10.1037/a0020141. View

18.

Sasson N, Faso D, Nugent J, Lovell S, Kennedy D, Grossman R . Neurotypical Peers are Less Willing to Interact with Those with Autism based on Thin Slice Judgments. Sci Rep. 2017; 7:40700. PMC: 5286449. DOI: 10.1038/srep40700. View

19.

Boccaccini M, Gordon T, Brodsky S . Witness preparation training with real and simulated criminal defendants. Behav Sci Law. 2005; 23(5):659-87. DOI: 10.1002/bsl.655. View

20.

Davies M, Rogers P . Perceptions of blame and credibility toward victims of childhood sexual abuse: differences across victim age, victim-perpetrator relationship, and respondent gender in a depicted case. J Child Sex Abus. 2009; 18(1):78-92. DOI: 10.1080/10538710802584668. View