Diversity in Social Intelligence Replication Project

About the project                                                           

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Traditionally, studies of autistic social communication focus perceived “deficits” in autistic people, for example theory of mind. 

However, recent research focuses on looking at interactions between (autistic and non-autistic) people to learn more about how people interact with one another, and what we can learn about the different ways people communicate. Findings from this type of research suggest that that autistic people communicate as well with each other as non-autistic people communicate with other non-autistic people. This suggests that it is a mutual misunderstanding, rather than onesided social ‘deficits’ that cause communication breakdowns – it be the mismatch between autistic and non-autistic people where miscommunications occur. 

One study that provided empirical evidence for this was led by Catherine Crompton and Sue Fletcher-Watson at the University of Edinburgh, published in 2020. This study found that autistic people and non-autistic people communicate and build rapport similarly well when they are with other people of the same neurotype, but when the groups were a mixture of autistic and non-autistic people, breakdowns in communication began to occur. You can read more about the original study here, here and here.

The original study had a major impact not only in the field of autism research but within the autistic community itself. By replicating this research, and expanding the study to collect different types of data, it is hoped that we can learn more about the different ways that people communicate, and that this will lead to improvements in the lives of autistic people and their non-autistic friends and family.

What we did

We collected data from over 300 autistic and non-autistic participants at the University of Edinburgh, University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Nottingham. We used a similar method to the original study – using a diffusion chain to find out how people share information with one another. 

We also completed new tasks, including group problem solving tasks and paired interaction tasks.

We measured how people performed on these tasks, and how much they enjoyed interacting with other people. 

What we found

Analyses are currently ongoing. Our papers published so far can be found below. 

In line with our commitments to Open Science Practices, all of our studies are pre-registered on the Open Science Framework and publications are freely available open access.

Our findings include:

1. Information transfer within and between autistic and non-autistic people

   Using a diffusion chain task, we found no difference in information transfer between single-neurotype and mixed-neurotype chains. Non-autistic chains indicated higher rapport, and letting participants know the diagnostic status of their partner improved rapport. This result challenges assumptions about autistic communication deficits but contrasts with prior findings. The participant sample was more diverse than the original study, and there were small changes in the methodologies which may explain the differences in results. 

2. Social motor synchrony and interactive rapport in autistic, non-autistic and mixed-neurotype dyads

   During social interactions, people often mirror each other’s movements and gestures, a process called synchrony. This synchrony helps foster a sense of connection, understanding, and ease in communication. While research suggests that autistic people may show less synchrony in their movements compared to non-autistic people, the implications of this difference for building rapport remain unclear. Specifically, it is unknown whether synchrony plays a similar role in rapport-building for autistic individuals as it does for non-autistic individuals, particularly in interactions with autistic versus non-autistic partners. This study had three goals to investigate whether synchrony is lower in conversations involving at least one autistic person; to explore the relationship between synchrony and rapport; and to compare how much autistic and non-autistic people rely on synchrony to feel connected. The findings suggest that while synchrony positively influences rapport more strongly in non-autistic interactions, autistic individuals may rely less on synchrony for rapport. These results highlight differences in how social connection is built, offering deeper insight into social interactions for autistic and non-autistic people.

3. Rapport in same and mixed neurotype groups of autistic and non-autistic adults

   Autistic adults sometimes get along better with other autistic people compared to non-autistic people, but so far this has only been studied in two-person interactions. This study examined how well autistic and non-autistic people develop rapport in a group setting and whether rapport differs when group members share or do not share a diagnosis. Some groups only had autistic members, some only had non-autistic members, and some were “mixed” groups of autistic and non-autistic members. Groups participated in a tower-building task for 5 minutes and afterwards completed a survey about rapport with the group. The groups of all-autistic participants expressed that their interactions were more enjoyable and friendly than the mixed groups. Autistic participants reported lower rapport when interacting with non-autistic adults, while non-autistic participants reported similar rapport whether interacting with autistic or non-autistic group members. Overall, findings are not consistent with a social deficit model of autism, as autistic adults often established rapport with partners in a group setting. Their level of rapport, however, depended strongly on the social context, particularly whether other autistic people were also in the group.

We will update this page with papers as they are published.

Datasharing

If you are interested in learning more about our dataset and accessing it for your own research, please complete this form to get in touch.

Other resources

A short video explaining our findings

Policy brief

The project team

The project team includes:

Dr Catherine Crompton (Principal Investigator)

Professor Noah Sasson (Co-Investigator, University of Texas at Dallas) 

Professor Danielle Ropar (Co-Investigator, University of Nottingham)

Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson (Co-Investigator, University of Edinburgh)

Sarah Foster (Research Assistant, University of Texas at Dallas)

Dr Themis Efthimiou (Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Edinburgh)

Dr Charlotte Wilks (Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Nottingham and University of Edinburgh)

Michelle Dodd (Research Assistant, University of Edinburgh)

Dr Martin Lages (Collaborator, University of Glasgow) 

Funding

This study was funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation 

Primary project contact

Dr Catherine Crompton – catherine.crompton@ed.ac.uk