Autistic People Are Believed to Feel More Pain than Non-Autistic People

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21208515
AutoresAbha Basargekar (0000-0002-0037-0146, University of Virginia, autor correspondente), Chelsea E Rodi (Virginia Commonwealth University), Valerie S Swisher (0000-0002-9311-9785, Pennsylvania State University), Vikram K Jaswal (0000-0002-7667-1252, University of Virginia)
Ano2025
Volume16
Fascículo4
Páginas397-411
Data de publicação2025-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Psychological and Personality Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1948-5506 • E-ISSN: 1948-5514
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/19485506231225993
OpenAlexW4391289200
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas44

Members of some marginalized groups are erroneously considered relatively insensitive to pain, an assumption that seems to reflect beliefs that they have been toughened up by the hardship they have endured. Autistic people represent a marginalized group, and some clinical accounts erroneously suggest that they, too, are relatively insensitive to pain. In two pre-registered studies involving college students and Prolific workers in the United States ( N = 287), we found that both autistic and non-autistic participants believed that an autistic target had experienced more hardship than a non-autistic target and (unexpectedly) would feel more pain than the non-autistic target or themselves. We speculate that our findings may reflect that autistic people are infantilized, viewed as vulnerable, and as lacking the agency to toughen up from life hardship

Autism · Autistic spectrum · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Autism Spectrum Disorder Research · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders · Psychology · Social Psychology