Why do many autistic people have passions for special interests? Why do they struggle to identify sarcasm?
Steve Silberman, the author of NeuroTribes, explains that autistic people also behave and think differently from their allistic peers. They often have deep passions known as special interests, have a tendency for literal thinking, and view things from a unique perspective.
Keep reading to learn about these behavioral and cognitive patterns, and how they can be both benefits and deficits.
Autistic Special Interests
The first cognitive pattern Silberman describes is having special interests. Autistic people often have a deep passion for specific topics, known as special interests. For instance, if an autistic person’s special interest is a television show, they may rewatch the show dozens of times, memorize portions of it, quote it frequently, collect memorabilia related to it, and perceive it as being tied to their identity. This tends to differ from the more casual interest that an allistic person may take in the same thing.
(Shortform note: Though some people view autistic people’s special interests as a flaw or something to be fixed, research shows that such interests can be extremely beneficial for autistic people. They can reduce anxiety, improve well-being, and provide a powerful means of bonding with other people. This is because autistic people are intrinsically motivated by their special interests and receive a neurological reward from them that’s comparable to the reward allistic people get from social interaction. In fact, research suggests that the brain areas devoted to social interaction in allistic brains are instead devoted to special interests in autistic brains.)
Literal Thinking
Autistic people also tend to think literally, which can contribute to the earlier-mentioned difficulty identifying sarcasm. For example, if you tell an autistic person, “The dishes are starting to pile up,” hinting that you’d like them to wash the dishes, they might assume that you’re simply stating that the dishes are dirty. Their literal thinking leads them to take the comment at face value without looking into its subtext. Or, they might think you’re noting that the dishes are in a pile—to them, your descriptive statement doesn’t come across as a comment on how dirty the dishes are, nor as a request to clean them.
Thinking From a Unique Perspective
Lastly, autistic people can think about things from a unique perspective that often differs significantly from allistic people’s perspectives. For example, as Silberman notes, they’re often particularly skilled at abstract thinking and coming up with original ideas compared to their allistic peers.
(Shortform note: Research shows that autistic people tend to have unusually good pattern-related skills, which may contribute to their unique perspectives. This includes pattern recognition (the ability to notice and predict patterns), pattern seeking (the cognitive impulse to look for and confirm patterns), and pattern processing (using patterns to enhance reasoning). Experts suggest that this could also partially explain autistic people’s aversion to socializing, as the variability and unpredictability of other people’s minds make it difficult to spot patterns in social interactions.)
| Literal Thinking: Flirtation and Honesty Literal thinking also means that autistic people often fail to pick up on subtextual clues and unspoken rules of social interaction. For example, they may struggle to notice when an allistic person is flirting with them because allistic flirting tends to be indirect (maintaining eye contact to show interest in someone, instead of verbally expressing interest, for example). Autistic people may also answer questions honestly in a way that’s off-putting to allistic people, especially when the unspoken social expectation is to not answer completely honestly. For example, an allistic person might ask “How are you?” and expect the other person to give a simple “I’m fine,” in response. However, an autistic person might give an honest answer like “I’m not doing very well. My cat died this morning,” an unexpected response that could make the interaction awkward. Or an allistic person might ask a question like “How do I look?” with the expectation of receiving a compliment, but an autistic person might inadvertently offend them with an honest response like, “Okay, except those pants are too tight on you.” |
