Autistic peer-to-peer information transfer is highly effective

I think it could reasonably be argued by neurotypicals that effective information transfer requires social communication skills, interaction and emotional reciprocity, and that according to neurotypicals, there are deficits in non-verbal communication and an absence of interest in peers. Since autism is clinically defined by neurotypicals as a social communication deficit, it may be expected that information transfer between autistic people would be particularly deficient. However, from experience communication difficulties usually arise when there is a neurotype mismatch and thus there is plenty of evidence to suggest that information transfer may be more successful between two autistic individuals in comparison to an autistic individual and a non autistic individual. Therefore I am arguing that difficulties in autistic communication are more apparent when interacting with non autistic people, and are somewhat alleviated when interacting with autistic people.

Novel research has shown that if, for example, you have a diffusion chain of eight participants, who relay information from the first person, to the second person and third person etc; the amount of detail retained in a mixed group of social communication chains showed a steeper decline than those groups of individuals who either were on or were not on, the autism spectrum. These results challenge the conception that autistic people lack the skills to interact successfully. Rather, autistic individuals can effectively share information with each other.

I would say this is true in that I find it easier interacting with other autistic individuals or those who have a good knowledge of autism, and I would say that I experience close social affiliation with them. I'm naturally better at understanding and detecting the intentions of autistic individuals or those who know autism well, than I am non autistic individuals who may have less of an understanding of autism. When I am interacting with these former groups of people, I would say that I exhibit fewer autistic traits compared to when I am interacting with the latter group.

A recent novel research study under the category of autism research shows how autistic and non-autistic individuals interact when in heterogeneous groups and homogenous groups in an information sharing context. A hypothesis argues information transfer yields higher returns for matched pairs (i.e. all autistic or all non-autistic) and that there is poorer quality information transfer for mixed pairs of autistic and non-autistic people. The experiment was operationalised using a diffusion chain technique which involves examining the fidelity of information as it is passed along linear chains of participants. By assessing and analysing the rate at which information degrades along the chain, the efficacy of information transfer can be explored. Five dimensions of analysis were later interpreted after participants were asked to complete a 100-point scale: ease, enjoyment, success, friendliness and awkwardness.

The quality of transfer of information within all autistic chains did not differ from information transfer in all non-autistic chains, indicating that autistic peoples’ abilities to share information and build rapport do not significantly differ from their non-autistic counterparts.

More information on the study can be found here.