Abstract
We investigated the effect of parents’ autism quotient (AQ), their sex and the sex of their children on their toy preference. In a computerized forced-choice shopping task, adults selected from cuddly and social role-playing toys (social toys), academic, music and sports toys (educational toys) and construction sets as well as cars (technical toys). A sex-balanced high and low AQ sample of 160 adults consisted of groups of parents of sons only, daughters only, sons and daughters, as well as of a group of adults without children (non-parents). The standard toy preference was social toys < educational toys < technical toys. Low AQ women were the only group to make a significantly higher amount of educational and a lower amount of technical toy choices. The mere presence of just sons increased technical toy choice in this experiment, while the mere presence of just daughters reduced technical toy choice both in men and high AQ individuals.
Highlights
Autism in children is seen as a strongly genetic disorder (e.g., Bailey et al, 1995; Grove et al, 2019)
The aim of our study is to investigate whether high autism quotient (AQ) parents may make different choices for their offspring than more sociable parents, in particular it is predicted that they will select more technical toys
Nine men did not select social toys in a single trial, and two men did not select educational toys, for reaction time (RT), the sample is reduced by 11 participants to N = 149 because of missing data
Summary
Autism in children is seen as a strongly genetic disorder (e.g., Bailey et al, 1995; Grove et al, 2019). It is generally agreed that there is an autistic spectrum where symptoms of repetitive behavior, lack or diminished language development and communication as well as empathy are personality features that are less pronounced and amount to an autistic phenotype rather than a clinical diagnosis (Bailey et al, 1998; Grofer Klinger and Dudley, 2019). Integration of different perspectives on the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) have been called for in the past (Bailey et al, 1996). One of the striking features of autism in children mentioned already in one of the first published studies (Asperger, 1944) was that their parents were not from deprived areas, but fathers in the majority were from technical professions, that is engineers or electrical engineers (Hippler and Klicpera, 2003). Similarities in personality between parents and their autistic child were noted, e.g., being aloof or ‘nervous.’
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