‘If I behave like the stupidly kind character maybe I will stop being accidentally rude to people’: does reading fiction inform the social understanding and masking behaviours of autistic females?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Girls are consistently found to have higher literacy levels than their male peers and to consume more social narrative fiction. This study conducted interviews with four autistic girls to better understand how reading fiction can inform the camouflaging behaviours of autistic girls. Participants described how imitating characters embodying desired values, such as kindness, provided them with a practical behavioural template. However, literature is only a simulation of reality, and participants described social “failures” where the tone of the imitated text did not align with their social reality.