Abstract
Camouflaging of autistic traits may make autism harder to diagnose. The current study evaluated the relations between camouflaging intent, first impressions, and age of autism diagnosis. Participants comprised autistic and non-autistic adults (n = 80, 50% female) who completed the Camouflaging of Autistic Traits Questionnaire. They were later video-recorded having a conversation with a person unaware of their diagnostic status. Ten-second clips from half these videos were later shown to 127 non-autistic peers, who rated their first impressions of each participant. Results showed that autistic participants were rated more poorly on first impressions, males were rated less favourably than females, and male raters were particularly harsh in their evaluations of autistic males. Camouflaging intent did not predict first impressions but better first impressions were linked with a later age of diagnosis.
Highlights
Is Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) diagnosed much more commonly in males than females, with a male to female ratio of 3–4.5:1 (Baio, 2012; Bryson & Smith, 1998; Fombonne, 2003), but males generally receive their ASC diagnosis at an earlier age than females (Begeer et al, 2013)
We tested our supplementary hypotheses relating to Phase 1 of the study, namely, the effects of diagnostic group and gender on camouflaging intent, executive functions (EF) and Theory of Mind (ToM), and correlations between scores for the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q), Autism Quotient (AQ), EF and ToM
The primary aim of this study was to evaluate this proposition by assessing camouflaging intent in autistic and non-autistic men and women using the self-report CAT-Q and examining, first, whether higher CAT-Q scores were associated with better ratings for first impressions by non-autistic peers, and second, whether higher CAT-Q scores and/or more favourable first impressions were predictive of a later age of ASC diagnosis
Summary
Is Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) diagnosed much more commonly in males than females, with a male to female ratio of 3–4.5:1 (Baio, 2012; Bryson & Smith, 1998; Fombonne, 2003), but males generally receive their ASC diagnosis at an earlier age than females (Begeer et al, 2013). Regardless of whether there are genetic factors that reduce susceptibility to autism in females (e.g., Robinson et al, 2013; Skuse, 2000), it has been suggested that many autistic women experience delays in diagnosis because they show a phenotype of the condition with fewer overt autistic characteristics (the Female Phenotype Theory [FPT]; Kopp & Gillberg, 1992). Consistent with the FPT, autistic females tend to make better first impressions than autistic males. This was first demonstrated by Cage and Burton (2019), who presented 10-s clips of 20 autistic adults and 20 non-autistic adults (10 female in each group) having a mock job interview to non-autistic observers who were unaware of ASC status. In a similar study, Cola et al (2020) arranged for 93 school-aged children, including autistic (62.5% male) and
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