Syllogistic reasoning reveals reduced bias in people with higher autistic-like traits from the general population.
Adults with more autistic traits think more carefully and fall for fewer logic traps.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave 400 college students short logic puzzles called syllogisms.
Each puzzle had a believable but wrong answer and a correct but odd answer.
Students also filled out the Autism-Spectrum Quotient to see how many autistic traits they had.
No one had an autism diagnosis; they were just typical adults.
What they found
People with more autistic traits picked the correct answer more often.
They were less fooled by the believable wrong answer.
In short, higher traits meant less gut bias and better cool logic.
How this fits with other research
Osório et al. (2025) saw autistic toddlers walk with wobbly, uneven steps.
That looks like the opposite of Marcus’ finding, but it isn’t.
The toddlers had a diagnosis and the adults did not; motor skills and reasoning are also different domains.
Sievers et al. (2020) built a new PAI screener for undiagnosed bright adults.
Their tool and Marcus’ syllogism task both flag subtle autistic features, but one uses personality items and the other uses logic puzzles.
Together they show we can spot traits in adults without a clinic visit.
Why it matters
If a client seems overly literal or blunt, try giving them logic games in session.
Their cool, rule-based style may shine there, and you can use that strength to teach flexible thinking in other tasks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Recent theories of autism have emphasised the cognitive strengths and weaknesses in those with autism, which are also seen to some degree in non-clinical samples with higher autistic-like traits. The dual process theory of autism proposes that people with autism and non-clinical people with a higher degree of autistic-like traits have a propensity to show reduced intuitive processing (automatic and typically faster) alongside enhanced propensity towards deliberative processing (dependent on general cognitive ability and typically slower). This study aimed to further test the dual process theory of autism by investigating syllogistic reasoning (whether a conclusion can be logically deduced from two propositions) in addition to the cognitive reflection test (correct responses to which reflect deliberative processing over-riding intuitive processing) with respect to the degree of autistic-like traits and general cognitive ability in a non-clinical sample of 189 adults. Results showed that higher levels of autistic-like traits were related to lower levels of intuitive processing and higher levels of deliberative processing, which was found across both the syllogistic reasoning and cognitive reflection test measures - over and above the effect of general cognitive ability. The findings are consistent with the dual process theory of autism, and implications for autism are discussed.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318808779