Journal of Educational Issues
ISSN 2377-2263
2016, Vol. 2, No. 2
www.macrothink.org/jei
131
Students’ Stereotypes of Autism
Chantelle Wood (Corresponding author)
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield
1 Vicar Lane, Sheffield S10 2TP, United Kingdom
E-mail: chantelle.wood@sheffield.ac.uk
Megan Freeth
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield
1 Vicar Lane, Sheffield S10 2TP, United Kingdom
E-mail: m.freeth@sheffield.ac.uk
Received: September 1, 2016 Accepted: October 13, 2016 Published: October 19, 2016
doi:10.5296/jei.v2i2.9975 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jei.v2i2.9975
Abstract
This research aimed to ascertain the contents (Study 1) and valence (Study 2) of the
stereotype associated with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) in university students. Study 1
used a free-response methodology where participants listed the characteristics that they
thought society associates with individuals with ASC. This study revealed that the stereotypic
traits most frequently reported by students without personal experience of ASC were poor
social skills, being introverted and withdrawn, poor communication and difficult personality
or behaviour. Study 2 had participants rate the valence of the 10 most frequently mentioned
stereotypic traits identified in Study 1, along with additional traits frequently used to describe
disabled and non-disabled people. This study found that eight of the ten most frequently
listed stereotypic traits from Study 1 were seen as negative, and were rated significantly more
negatively than traits used to describe non-disabled people. The knowledge of the contents
and valence of the stereotype of ASC gained from this research can be used to tackle negative
aspects of this stereotype.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Condition, Autism, Stereotype, Stereotypical traits, Societal
beliefs
Journal of Educational Issues
ISSN 2377-2263
2016, Vol. 2, No. 2
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1. Introduction
Although great inroads have been made into understanding autism since it was first
recognised by Leo Kanner in 1943, recent reports have highlighted the extreme paucity of
knowledge around societal issues relevant to autism, such as the lack of research addressing
inaccurate perceptions of autistic people (Pellicano, Dinsmore, & Charman, 2014). While the
level of awareness of autism within the general population has recently been reported to be
high (Dillenburger, Jordan, McKerr, Devine, & Keenan, 2013), aspects of public perceptions
of autism can be negative and inaccurate (Huws & Jones, 2010). Negative behaviour towards
autistic people is also prevalent - bullying is widely reported (Humphrey & Lewis, 2008;
Huws & Jones, 2008). Examination of media representations suggests that the media
perpetuates negative and inaccurate characterisations of autism. Recent content analyses of
both Australian and British print media report that autistic people are often portrayed as
unstable or dangerous (Huws & Jones, 2011; Jones & Harwood, 2009), and that the
prevalence of savant skills is overstated (Jones & Harwood, 2009). Draaisma (2009) similarly
notes that it is very difficult to think of an example of a character in a film or television series
who is autistic but who does not have some form of savant skill. However, in reality less than
30% of those who are autistic actually possess such a skill (Howlin, Goode, Hutton, & Rutter,
2009).
Before research can evaluate potential interventions for changing perceptions of autism, a
greater understanding of the contents of the stereotype of autism is needed. Stereotypes are
the set of traits and characteristics that society ascribes to a particular social group (Brown,
1995). Autism affects approximately 1 in every 100 people in the UK (Brugha et al., 2011).
For a large proportion of the population therefore, direct contact with autistic people will be
infrequent. In the absence of direct experience, perceptions of and attitudes towards autistic
people may be largely based on stereotypes. Studies examining stereotypes of disabled people
in general indicate a predominantly negative stereotype. For example, Nario-Redmond (2010)
found that disabled men and women were characterised as dependent, incompetent, and
asexual. Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, and Xu (2002) similarly found that disabled people were seen
as low in competence, though high in warmth. To date however, there have been are no
published quantitative studies that attempt to explicitly document the contents of the
stereotype of autistic people.
In the current research we formally measured the contents of the stereotype of autistic people
(Study 1), and the valence of that stereotype (Study 2), in two studies using separate
university student samples. In order to measure the contents of the stereotype of autistic
people, Study 1 had participants freely list the characteristics/traits that they thought society
associates with individuals with an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). Frequency tables
were then used to analyse stereotype content. In order to measure the valence of the
stereotype of autism, Study 2 had participants rate the valence of the 10 most frequently
mentioned stereotypic traits from Study 1, along with traits frequently used to described
disabled and non-disabled people, in general (Nario-Redmond, 2010). The latter sets of traits
were included in order to provide appropriate comparison groups for interpreting the valence
of the stereotype of autism. Given the literature reviewed above, concerning negative media
Journal of Educational Issues
ISSN 2377-2263
2016, Vol. 2, No. 2
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133
representations and lay perceptions of autism (i.e., Huws & Jones, 2010; Huws & Jones, 2011;
Jones & Harwood, 2009) we expected the stereotype of ASC to be largely pejorative.
2. Study 1: Content of the Stereotype of Autism
2.1 Method
2.1.1 Participants
An invitation to complete an online questionnaire was sent to undergraduate and postgraduate
students on a research volunteers mailing list at a university in the United Kingdom. The
survey was completed by 298 individuals. In order to tap into general stereotypes of ASC in
the UK student population, we excluded participants from the main analysis if they a) had not
lived in the UK for five years or more; b) had a diagnosis on the autism spectrum; c) had a
family member or close friend who was autistic. The resulted in a final sample size for the
main analysis of 163 participants (100 female, 63 male; 129 British, 34 other nationality).
The mean age of the sample was 24.54 years (SD = 9.60).
2.1.2 Materials and Procedure
The study was approved by the appropriate University Ethics Committee. The online
questionnaire was run using Qualtrics software (Provo, UT). Participants were informed that
the questionnaire was designed to help researchers better understand the social stereotype of
individuals with an Autism Spectrum Condition. Participants were told that the interest was in
the beliefs that society as a whole holds of this group, rather than their own personal beliefs
(cf. Devine, 1989). This emphasis on societal beliefs is commonly used when measuring
stereotypes (e.g., see Devine, 1989; Fiske et al., 2002; Nario-Redmond, 2010), and helps to
reduce social desirability concerns.
Following completion of demographic information (including whether the participant, a
family member, or a friend had an Autism Spectrum Condition diagnosis), participants were
asked to list all of the characteristics/traits that society associates with Autism Spectrum
Conditions. This free-response method (e.g., see Devine, 1989) was used to avoid unduly
constraining the responses of participants from the outset. Participants were reminded to
report the beliefs that society as a whole holds of individuals with Autism Spectrum
Conditions, rather than their own.
2.2 Results
2.2.1 Data Coding
From the questionnaire responses, 1332 separate traits and characteristics were generated.
Using a similar thematic identification methodology to Nario-Redmond (2010), the authors
reviewed all responses and identified 33 trait category themes that characterised all answers.
Three pairs of coders were provided with the list of trait categories and a short description
summarising the content of each category. Each pair coded a third of the responses, such that
each of the 1332 items were independently coded by two people. Inter-rater reliability was
high (M = .80; ĸ = .79). Disagreements were resolved via discussion.
Journal of Educational Issues
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2016, Vol. 2, No. 2
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2.2.2 Free response Analyses
The ten most frequent trait categories are reported in Table 1. As shown in the table, the most
frequently mentioned characteristic was poor social skills, which was noted by over 50% of
participants.
Table 1. Frequency counts for the ten most frequently mentioned characteristics/traits
Rank Category label Frequency count % of total respondents
1 Poor social skills 92 56.1
2 Introverted and withdrawn 52 31.7
3 Poor communication 48 29.3
4 Difficult personality or behaviour 46 28.0
5 Poor emotional intelligence 38 23.2
6 Special abilities 30 18.3
7 High intelligence 27 16.5
8 Awkward 21 12.8
9 Obsessive 21 12.8
10 Low intelligence 20 12.2
3. Study 2: Valence of the Stereotype of Autism
3.1 Method
3.1.1 Participants
An invitation to complete an online questionnaire was advertised to undergraduate and
postgraduate students via a volunteering webpage at a university in the United Kingdom. The
survey was completed by 42 students (40 female, 2 male), with a mean age of 21.86 years
(SD = 3.45).
3.1.2 Materials and Procedure
The study was approved by the appropriate University Ethics Committee. The online
questionnaire was run using Qualtrics software (Provo, UT). Participants were informed that
the questionnaire was designed to help researchers better understand whether various traits
are considered to be positive, negative or neutral. Participants then rated 38 traits on a 7-point
likert scale ranging from “extremely negative” to “extremely positive”. The 10 most
frequently mentioned traits identified in Study 1 were presented inter-mixed with 28 traits
identified by Nario-Redmond (2010) as traits frequently used to describe disabled and
non-disabled people, in general.
Journal of Educational Issues
ISSN 2377-2263
2016, Vol. 2, No. 2
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135
3.2 Results
A mean valence score of the 10 most frequent stereotypic traits from Study 1 was calculated
for each participant. A single-sample t-test then assessed whether mean scores were above or
below the neutral point on the likert scale (a score of 4). The mean score for autistic traits was
2.87, which was significantly below neutral, t(41) = 14.72, p < .001, d = 4.60, indicating that
overall, the traits generated by participants in Study 1 as stereotypic of autistic individuals
were rated as negative. However, a repeated measures ANOVA conducted on the individual
valence scores for each trait found significant differences in ratings, F(5.5, 224.0) = 101.86, p
< .001 ηp
2
= 0.72 (Note 1). As can be seen in Figure 1 panel A, eight out of the ten traits were
rated as negative, and two rated as positive.
A repeated measures ANOVA was also conducted to compare the mean valence score for the
autism stereotypic traits to the mean valence score for the traits identified by Nario-Redmond
(2010) as representing the general categories of disabled and non-disabled people (see mean
scores for each trait item in Figure 1 panels A, B & C). An extremely large and significant
effect of trait type was observed, F(1.58, 65.4) = 261.94, ηp
2
= 0.87 (Note 1). Post-hoc paired
samples t-tests indicated that autistic traits were rated much more negatively than traits used
to describe the general category of non-disabled people, t(41) = 17.06, p < .001, d = 3.66 (M
= 2.87 vs. M = 4.46). However, autism stereotype traits were rated more positively overall
than traits used to describe the general category of disabled people, t(41) = 2.53, p = .015, d =
0.3 (M = 2.87 vs. M = 2.72), though the effect size was small.