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Exploring the impact of Autism Spectrum Disorder on deceptive communication and deception detection

Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN Abstractpeer-review

Published
Publication date22/06/2022
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In society, there is a stereotypical belief that gaze aversion, unusual body language, and atypical speech patterns are cues to deception. However, gaze aversion, unusual body language, and atypical speech are also characteristic behaviours of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This may result in autistic adults being perceived as deceptive, even when telling the truth. Moreover, due to the emotional and cognitive impairments associated with ASD, autistic adults may exhibit a reduced capability to detect deception. Consequently, autistic adults may be uniquely vulnerable to negative contact within the Criminal Justice System (CJS); they may be viewed as erroneously deceptive, or face an increased risk of falling victim to fraud due to potential impairments in their deception detection abilities. The purpose of this talk is to present a brief overview of my research which will investigate whether autistic adults differ from neurotypical adults in their ability to deceive and to detect deception. I will also discuss why this emerging research is crucial for the protection of autistic adults’ future interests.

Bibliographic note

Abstract for presentation given at BASS22