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Seeing it in others versus doing it yourself: Social desirability judgements and conversation production data from autistic and non-autistic children

McGuinness, Lauren, Abbot-Smith, Kirsten, Gambi, Chiara (2024) Seeing it in others versus doing it yourself: Social desirability judgements and conversation production data from autistic and non-autistic children. Autism, . ISSN 1362-3613. E-ISSN 1461-7005. (doi:10.1177/13623613241292172) (KAR id:107424)

Abstract

On average, groups of autistic individuals are more likely than groups of non-autistic individuals to exhibit unconventional conversational behaviours. We examined autistic and non-autistic children’s social impressions of unconventional responding, as well as actual conversational behaviours in the same participants. Across two studies, 36 autistic and 36 non-autistic matched 9-13-year-olds listened to conversational vignettes which manipulated the relevance and timing of responses produced by the speaker. They then rated the speaker’s social desirability. We also measured the content and latency of the same children’s conversational responses. Autistic children aligned with their non-autistic peers in indicating that they were less likely to befriend, or enjoy interacting with, a speaker who provided off-topic or delayed responses. However, the same autistic children provided more off-topic, and fewer topic-continuing, conversational responses than their non-autistic counterparts. These findings suggest that displaying unconventional conversational behaviours may act as a barrier to friendship or inclusion for autistic children, even when socialising with other autistic peers.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/13623613241292172
Uncontrolled keywords: autism; children; conversation; off-topic; response latencies; social desirability; first impressions
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF41 Psychology and philosophy
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Funders: Economic and Social Research Council (https://ror.org/03n0ht308)
Depositing User: Kirsten Abbot-Smith
Date Deposited: 02 Oct 2024 16:21 UTC
Last Modified: 19 Nov 2024 14:40 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/107424 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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