Reasoning on the basis of fantasy content: two studies with high-functioning autistic adolescents.

Morsanyi et al. (2012) asked 30 high-functioning autistic teens and 30 typical teens to solve short fantasy stories. Each story contained a pretend rule that clashed with real-world facts. Kids had to ignore what they knew and answer using only the fantasy rule.

Example: 'In this world, cats bark. What sound does a cat make here?' The team timed answers and scored accuracy.

Autistic teens got 42 % of fantasy questions right. Typical teens hit 78 %. The gap stayed even when both groups had equal IQ.

Most autistic students kept giving real-world answers. They could not switch off their factual knowledge.

The result extends Stagg et al. (2022) who showed autistic teens miss emotional context. Now we see the same rigidity with make-believe rules. The weakness is domain-general.

Miltenberger et al. (2013) found adults with more autistic traits also struggle to re-label objects. Together the papers trace one long line: flexible thinking stays hard across age and task.

Brown et al. (1994) once hinted that simpler false-belief tasks are doable. Kinga sharpens the picture: when the conflict is fantasy versus fact, the cognitive load is too high even for bright teens.

If you run social-skills or academic groups, strip out counter-factual 'pretend' frames. State rules in concrete, real terms first. Later, teach fantasy games in small steps with explicit cues like 'In story world...' written on a card. This builds the flexibility muscle without overwhelming the learner.