I’m Fine with Autistic People, but Other Folks Feel Uncomfortable: Exploring the Gap Between Reported Community Attitudes and Autistic Lived Experience

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. two authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

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Jones, S. C., Mizzi, S., & Lowe, J. (2025). I’m Fine with Autistic People, but Other Folks Feel Uncomfortable: Exploring the Gap Between Reported Community Attitudes and Autistic Lived Experience. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2023.0208

Publication date: 14 Apr 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 3 (66.7%)
  1. Sandra C. Jones *
  2. Simone Mizzi
  3. Jennifer Lowe *

Abstract

Background: Studies of community attitudes toward autism often report predominantly positive or neutral attitudes toward autistic people. However, studies of the experiences of autistic people and their families consistently report high levels of stigma, discrimination, and exclusion from society. Methods: Our autistic-led study utilized the “third person” method to assess subconscious attitudes toward autism, by asking participants how they and hypothetical “others” would feel about interacting with autistic people in a range of scenarios. We conducted an online survey using a probability-based panel representative of the Australian population with 1626 non-autistic adults who reported not having close contact with an autistic person. Results: The majority of the participants agreed that there is a need to find better ways to support autistic people and that autistic people should be able to access disability services, although this varied by service type. There were overt differences in participants’ reports of how they would feel about meeting an autistic person and how “other people” would feel in the same situation, with other people consistently described as considerably more likely to feel uncomfortable or very uncomfortable. Participants also reported a lower level of comfort, for both themselves and others, with engaging and interacting with autistic adults compared with autistic children. These findings provide a bridge between studies with and by non-autistic people that report positive attitudes and studies with and by autistic people that report experiences of exclusion, discrimination, and stigmatization. The significant literature on, and lived experience of, autistic children and their families would suggest that there is a considerable element of social desirability bias in responses to surveys of attitudes toward autism and that in reality our communities are populated with these “other” people. Conclusion: Future research into community attitudes should utilize measures such as these that address social desirability bias and explore deeply held beliefs and attitudes that may not be expressed in response to direct questions. Future policy and advocacy interventions should focus on acceptance and appreciation of autistic adults. These are the attitudes we need to change if we are going to build a society that is truly inclusive.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 11:55.

Cited references
39
With a DOI
38
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
1
8 / 39 (20.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 39 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
39 / 39 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
1
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
130
From DOI or external metadata
130
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
60 / 130 (46.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 70 / 130 (53.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
11 / 130 (8.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 11 / 60 (18.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 7 / 106 (6.6%).
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