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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."
Men shape the world so that they can earn more money. I demand equal access to autism for women!
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.
What Is NT?
Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity.
Neurotypical individuals often assume that their experience of the world is either the only one, or the only correct one. NTs find it difficult to be alone. NTs are often intolerant of seemingly minor differences in others. When in groups NTs are socially and behaviorally rigid, and frequently insist upon the performance of dysfunctional, destructive, and even impossible rituals as a way of maintaining group identity. NTs find it difficult to communicate directly, and have a much higher incidence of lying as compared to persons on the autistic spectrum.
NT is believed to be genetic in origin. Autopsies have shown the brain of the neurotypical is typically smaller than that of an autistic individual and may have overdeveloped areas related to social behavior.
Help find a cure!
http://isnt.autistics.org/
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
SCIENCE CAUSES AUTISM. No wonder with all those chemicals in it.
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.
Indeed.
I have a cousin with a severely autistic son. He's in his early teens now but is completely incapable of any kind of social interactions and has never shown any kind of interest in any kind of intellectual activity. He mostly just sits in the middle of the floor and requires day-round care for even his most basic needs. He has occasional screaming fits (sometimes physically violent), which tend to be triggered by visitors or other events that interrupt his routine. He's never spoken a single coherent word.
He shows a basic attention reaction to a handful of external stimuli (most notably, for some reason, that godawful Donkey Kong CGI cartoon show from a decade or so ago, which will get him to focus his eyes on a TV), but that's about it.
He doesn't scrawl complex equations on the wall. He doesn't paint pictures of indescribable beauty. His intelligence, as you suggest, is impossible to measure because he simply doesn't interact with the world.
This isn't a different way of being a functioning person. It's a very severe disability. He would have a better chance of living an independent life if he were quadriplegic rather than autistic.
I've seen lots of people claim to be "a little bit autistic" as a way of excusing and enabling their own anti-social behaviours. But there's a big difference between "I don't get along well with others" and "full-blown autism".
I've seen lots of people claim to be "a little bit autistic" as a way of excusing and enabling their own anti-social behaviours. But there's a big difference between "I don't get along well with others" and "full-blown autism".
Indeed. It's called tha autism spectrum for a reason. My 25 year old son is moderate to severely autistic. When he was first diagnosed it was at a time when autism wasn't the "mental disease du jour". Having lived with him for this long, I can clearly see behaviors in anyone that I would consider on the spectrum, myself included. And yes, some of those characteristics would be beneficial in a STEM career. But it bothers me when people who obviously don't say, "I have autism" or "that's my autism kicking in".
True, diagnosed, full autism isn't an evolutionary advantage because 95% (guessing, but it feels right) of those people will not reproduce, my son included. My son has a good life and even has his own apartment now (heavily supervised by case workers and us), but likely the only type of job he will ever be able to hold down is grocery bagger, which he does now. To me it feels like the disease of autism grossly over-amplifies a certain set of characteristics that are present in all people - to the point where it's debilitating.
You are not autistic because you like math or because you are socially awkward...
One of the things I learned when we found out our son has autism, is that people with autism tend to think in an If-Then manner. "If this happens THEN do that." This works out great for programming - which can essentially be boiled down to "if this happens, then the computer should do that" - and other STEM-type careers. It doesn't work so well for social interactions which are a mess of shades of grey.
People with autism can "emulate" neurotypical by building up tons of social "if-then" rules that they follow, but (like computer emulation) it's not as fast as "running native neurotypical" and it can be tiring. I can get by in an office environment, but stick me in a party and I freeze up and don't know what rules to follow.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Just think how great it would be for corporations if they could convince people that suffering is a desirable trait?
Been done already. Worked fine for almost 2,000 years. It's called "Roman Catholicism".
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep