@KatyElphinstone
I haven't finished the article yet, probably only a third, but I want to share a tangential thought while it's still in my head. One of the quotes in the article says: "Studies show that those above us in the social hierarchy attract more envy, hate, and evil-wishing from us than those who are our equals or below us (Smith et al., 2007)."

This appears in contradiction to the article's earlier statements about people demonstrating more "empathy" for people above them than below them, but then explains it as a matter of survival; you have to do this in order to adapt and survive/prosper.

So that got me thinking then, perhaps this is not the natural way for people, even allistic people to operate?

My current understanding/belief/model of autistic vs. allistic people is that, in short, allistic people start life more adaptable than autistic people; that is, they can grow up to accept as normal a much wider variety of social norms than we can. If this is so, then perhaps this whole "social hierarchy" thing that is so entrenched in our society is not the inevitable product of neurotypical brains at all like I've suspected before, but instead simply the result of some cultural development in the past that has managed to become self-perpetuating (in memetic terms, a highly successful and resilient memeplex).

If that's the case, then I think that there is a lot more hope for changing society for the better, and that we autistic people (and likely some other neurodivergents as well) are the most likely candidates for facilitating that change, one without power hierarchies and promotes a better form of "empathy".

(I know that's a lot of "ifs", I'm just speculating here. The internal models are always updating with new information.)