"Autistic-like" Personality Traits in Neurotypical Adults: Examining Possible Differences in the Ease, Speed and Hierarchy of Social Inference

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that traits associated with high-functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome exist in normally-functioning adults and that people with pronounced traits of this kind show a systematic deficit in the ease, speed and hierarchy of social inference. We also explored whether these traits related to other known measures of personality. A sample of fifty-nine undergraduate and graduate students on the University of Oregon campus participated by completing five social inference tasks, the Autism Spectrum Quotients (AQ) and the Big-Five Mini-Markers. Comparisons of these measures failed to support the proposed hypothesis, but the results raise questions about the validity of the AQ to be much more than another measurement of known personality types. The results also suggest an organization of multiple social inferences, though robust, that may have some susceptibility to variation due in part to individual differences. Lastly, this exploratory study provides suggestions for further research.