Social anxiety is more likely to influence reputation management decisions than autistic traits.
Social anxiety, not autistic traits alone, predicts whether adults will share personal strengths.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dubey et al. (2024) asked adults to rate their own abilities, then choose whether to share those scores with others. The team measured autistic traits and social anxiety in each person.
The study used a quasi-experimental design. It looked at how traits and anxiety predicted the choice to disclose or hide personal scores.
What they found
People with higher social anxiety kept their scores private. Autistic traits alone did not change disclosure, but they made the anxiety effect stronger.
When both social anxiety and autistic traits were high, participants hid their scores the most.
How this fits with other research
Panasiti et al. (2016) showed that higher autistic traits weakened the link between social reward learning and later prosocial acts in neurotypical adults. The new study agrees: traits alone have little impact until paired with social anxiety.
Beaurenaut et al. (2024) found no overall group difference in online social learning between autistic and non-autistic adults. This seems to clash with Indu et al., but the difference is in the outcome. Beaurenaut looked at learning speed; Indu looked at the choice to share information. Both show that anxiety, not traits, drives social hesitation.
Lemons et al. (2015) split autistic traits into social- and detail-oriented profiles. Indu’s result supports the social-profile view: anxiety linked to social traits, not detail focus, predicts disclosure.
Why it matters
Before you teach self-advocacy or interview skills, screen for social anxiety. Clients may already have the ability to speak up, but anxiety blocks them. Pair social-skills training with anxiety management. A simple breathing routine or coping statement right before role-play can let the client show what they know.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
People manage their social reputation by selectively sharing achievements, thereby shaping the way others think about them. Autistic traits and social anxiety may have opposing impacts on reputation management. This study aimed to identify the influence of autistic traits and social anxiety on reputation management behavior, independently and in co-occurrence with one another. Seventy-seven adults with varying levels of autistic and social anxiety traits completed a novel self-disclosure task that required them to complete a computerized game and decide whether to disclose their scores to another participant. This design provided a safe social environment for sharing performance outcomes and allowed us to manipulate performance outcomes for participants and set a perceived 'norm' of high self-disclosure. Results showed that participants were more likely to disclose their high than low scores to the other player. Social anxiety reliably predicted the likelihood of disclosing their scores while high autistic traits predicted the likelihood of disclosure only in combination with high social anxiety. Additionally, establishing the norm of high disclosure facilitated self-disclosure in all the participants. This study shows that social anxiety may influence reputation management via selective self-disclosure more when co-occurring with high autistic traits. People with varying levels of autistic traits may not behave differently to maintain a social reputation.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3040