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Huge Survey Shows Correlation Between Autistic Traits and STEM Jobs (cam.ac.uk)
Bruce66423 writes: A survey of more than 450,000 people in the UK has shown there is a significant correlation between a higher score on the Autism Quotient and being a scientist or engineer. AQ scores are also higher for men than for women. "On average, the male AQ score was 21.6, compared to a female score of 19.0. People work in a STEM-related job had an average AQ score of 21.9 compared to a score of 18.9 for individuals working in non-STEM jobs. This suggests autistic traits are linked to both sex and to having a ‘systems-thinking’ mind." A professor involved with the work said, "These may shed light on why we find males in the population on average have slightly more autistic traits than females do, and why fathers and grandfathers of children with autism are over-represented in STEM fields."
I would much rather we classify conditions such as autism by the extent that someone is unable to lead a full and prosperous life. Rather than get all tangled up with low-level biases that may or may not say something about the disability. All this study really shows is that personality types are attracted to certain jobs. It does not advance our knowledge of autism. What would have been really interesting is whether there is a change in score over time as people enter various careers - to more autistic traits emerge in people who code for a living.
The current hype around STEM jobs hides the fact that knowing people is still a much better way of being successful than knowing things. STEM jobs are like garbage pickup: It's very important that somebody does it, but you don't want your kids to end up doing the hard work for little money. Yes, I know that STEM jobs are considered well-paying, but with the same work ethic and intellectual ability that they require, one could easily make more money in other fields. An innate talent for science and technology, which appears to be correlated with mild autism spectrum disorders and thus a much lower chance of getting along with people, is as much an evolutionary advantage as being on the other end of the bell curve: The world works best for the people in the middle, not for the outliers.
Non-STEM people just can't concentrate because they have the attention span of a gnat, that's why they call the thinkers autistic.
Where autistic men tend to latch onto trains, or other similar obsessions, many of the autistic women I've known have, at some point in their lives, become fixated on social interactions. The result is, with a lot of effort, they can be quite socially functional, albeit a little bit peculiar. This probably also skews the results of the test.
My friends 13 yr old isn't great at school and his autism makes him very emotional and socially awkward. He doesn't really like music though, haven't heard him play for a few years so I suppose he could be getting good. But say that is the way he "succeeds" with his autism? It doesn't stop the socially awkward and emotional bits.
Being ADD/ASD with hypersensitivity I am in a position to tell you how wrong you are.
First of all there is nothing wrong with being very emotional. Who sets the level of acceptability for emotional sensitivity? It's an advantage in some situations and a disadvantage in others, if you are hypersensitive you just have to learn to play to your strengths like anyone else. The main problem for a kid is that if other kids figure out they can upset you they will stop at nothing to do so. That's an asshole problem, not an ASD problem. Drugging the asshole neurotypicals into dull submission would solve the problem nicely, preferably with something that makes them drool or do something embarrassing that they will cop a lot of shit for from the other kids.
As for social awkwardness, I was socially awkward most of my life and still have social anxiety. That tends to happen when you have years of compulsory association with people that are assholes to you and it won't be going away anytime soon, but you can learn social skills and also learn to 'ride the wave' with anxiety in ways that are very successful in social situations, in much the same way that a performer might harness their anxiety to add to their stage presence. I have friends, I have lovers, I'm popular at my local drinking spot and I know how to meet new people. Your friends son might learn to do really well socially if he meets some people a bit more understanding and helpful than you.
He'd probably end up being a musical "genius" in the Kobain sense not in the Handel sense, ie not able to cope with the things that cope with it and dying because of it. He's as bad off as if he was born with no "special talent" for anything and instead had an IQ of say 80..
Fuck you for setting such negative expectations for your friends son. In reality I doubt you are a true friend to him and with your attitude you are certainly an enemy of his son's, even if you don't mean to be or see yourself that way. Fix your attitude or stay out of his life.
The CDC says that you are absolutely wrong. Autism is 5x more common in boys (interestingly, this is rather close to the male/female STEM ratio).
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
I am in the autism spectrum. I'm 46. I can now interact in an almost normal way, people don't notice at all I'm autistic, but only about 5 to 10 hours a week max. The "acting normal game" take me so much energy that I become extremely tired very fast. After a two hours meeting, I must take at least a day of rest. If I'm in a place where there is more than 5 of 6 people, I must keep all social interactions to a minimum. If I don't, I revert to my natural way of interacting with people and I end up pissing off everyone. I live alone with three cats and almost no one ever come to my apartment. Except from my landlord who comes once a month to collect the rent, the last person who entered my house was my mother about three months ago. Other than work, I have no social life whatsoever. The first time I had sex, I was 40 years old.
So yes, I guess you can say I'm "mentally handicapped".
On the other hand, my IQ is 155. Maybe you think it's a low IQ, but I think most people will disagree with you.
Captcha : "single". I swear /. is sentient.
I got chills reading that. That's one of the most accurate descriptions I think I've ever read.
The description fits me very good aswell.
I'd bet it fits about 95% of the population
It's called the Barnum Effect.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Yes. This is one reason programmers and gamers resent the suggestion that they're misogynistic: They treat everybody the same.
Just because it's not the way women want to be treated doesn't make it misogynistic.
I'm diagnosed with Aspergers, and I don't generally want to upset people. I've managed it with complete accidental ease. I mix with people that don't worry about the oddities and give me credit for my skills and abilities, instead of crying about those I lack.
Others are less accepting. They can stay the fuck out of my profession.