what we thought we knew about autism and... whatnot

'For decades, researchers had been measuring the wrong thing. Conflating communication style differences with empathy deficits produced dramatically inflated effect sizes and an illusion of empathy impairment'

#autism #actuallyAutistic #science #psychology

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-different/202601/what-the-world-got-wrong-about-autistic-people

What the World Got Wrong About Autistic People

For decades, autism research compared autistic people to animals, denied them moral sensitivity, and assumed autistic traits made them miserable. All wrong.

Psychology Today
@oscarjiminy
This alone should be shouted about: "researchers had assumed impairment, they found autistic people applying moral principles more consistently—even to strangers, even when costly. In a world increasingly damaged by in-group bias, this isn't a deficit; it's a collective-level fail-safe feature."
@Andii @oscarjiminy wait, so all the stories about being nice to others exist because most people just aren't? 

@efi @Andii @oscarjiminy Short answer: Yes.

Long Answer: How many random acts of kindness have you encountered in your life so far vs how many random acts of fuck you just because?

@efi @Vaneshi @Andii @oscarjiminy It's worse in some places than others but yeah, a strong built-in tolerance to hypocrisy is a bad thing.

@Vaneshi @efi @Andii @oscarjiminy

I have experienced thousands of acts of random kindness for each act of random fuckyouness

From actual people, I mean, not governmental policies

This might be cultural. I think being kind to strangers is a huge thing in the culture where I live. I miss it, when I travel!