Implicit bias impacts how autistic and non-autistic people exert ‘charitable’ effort

Societal stigma against autistic people may influence how much effort individuals put into ‘prosocial’ or charitable behaviours, according to a new study.

In a new study published in Research in Autism, researchers from the University of Birmingham asked a group of 30 autistic and 30 non-autistic adults to squeeze a hand grip to earn credits for themselves, for others with the same neurotype, or for others with a different neurotype.

The team found that all participants were willing to exert more effort to get rewards for themselves than they were for someone else. In addition, participants were less willing to put in effort for someone else regardless of what neurotype they were.

Dr Sophie Sowden-Carvalho from the University of Birmingham and lead author of the paper said: “Both autistic and non-autistic individuals showed similar self-bias in their decisions - they chose to put in more effort for themselves than for others, and it didn’t matter whether they were making choices for an autistic or non-autistic partner.

“When looking at how much actual effort participants put in, non-autistic participants put in equal effort for other autistic and non-autistic participants, whilst autistic participants put in more actual effort for their fellow autistic than non-autistic participants.”

Implicit bias on display

Participants were also assessed for their implicit and explicit biases towards autistic people and found that implicit bias predicted the amount of effort they were likely to put in for others.

The research team found that explicit biases, measured through questionnaires, did not predict how much effort participants put in for others. However, implicit biases against autistic people, assessed using an implicit association test, was linked to the amount of effort put in – for both autistic and non-autistic participants..

For autistic participants, stronger implicit biases against autism predicted lower motivation to put in effort for autistic peers. For non-autistic participants, implicit biases did not affect their effort decisions, but it was linked to greater effort exerted for non-autistic compared to autistic peers.

Dr Sowden-Carvalho said: "Our findings suggest that unconscious rather than conscious attitudes may be more influential in guiding prosocial behaviour and the need to address unconscious biases – promoting greater acceptance of autistic people and reducing internalised stigma – to foster more supportive relationships between and within neurotypes.”

“In workplace and educational settings, our results highlight the importance of considering how implicit biases might influence behaviour toward autistic individuals, even when explicit discrimination is absent. For example, non-autistic colleagues or educators might make equitable decisions regarding resource allocation or opportunities for autistic individuals, but their implicit biases could still manifest in subtly reduced effort or enthusiasm when actually implementing these iniaitives. Similarly, autistic individuals' own implicit biases might influence their greater implicit effort exerted when carrying out other-benefiting actions for their autistic than non-autistic counterparts.”