Simulated Contact and Attitudes Toward Autistic Adults: Effects of Gender of the Autistic Adult and Mediation by Intergroup Anxiety

Neurotypical peers tend to have negative attitudes toward autistic peers, which may contribute to negative outcomes for autistic individuals. The present study was designed to build upon previous findings by testing whether simulating contact with an individual labeled as autistic and exhibiting stereotypical autistic behaviors, which has been shown to improve neurotypical individuals’ attitudes toward autistic peers, depended on the gender of the imagined person. We also examined whether intergroup anxiety mediated the effects of simulated contact on these attitudes.

Neurotypical undergraduate participants (n = 194) were assigned to simulated contact scenarios in which the person in the imagined contact situation was labeled as autistic or not, exhibited stereotypical autistic behaviors or not and was given a female-identifying or male-identifying name. Participants completed questionnaires that assessed their attitudes toward autism, their previous contact with autistic individuals and their intergroup anxiety with future interactions with autistic people.

As expected, after imagining contact with a person exhibiting stereotypical autistic behaviors, attitudes toward autistic individuals were more positive following interactions with male- but not female-identifying autistic partners. Intergroup anxiety was found to be a mediator of the effects of imagined contact on attitudes toward autistic individuals.

These findings lend further support for imagined contact as a method to improve attitudes toward autistic individuals, identify intergroup anxiety as a mediator and begin to demonstrate some situations, such as imagining a female-identifying autistic individual, where imagined contact may not be effective in changing attitudes.