Simon Baron-Cohen, of mindblindness fame, uses autism to examine the psychology of dishonesty. He concludes that the central reason people with autism are so honest (and so vulnerable to liars) is that they have difficulty developing a theory of mind for other people.
And then there are people with autism. Their neurological condition leads not only to difficulties socializing and chatting but also to difficulties recognizing when someone might be deceiving them or understanding how to deceive others. Many children with autism are perplexed by why someone would even want to deceive others, or why someone would think about fiction or pretense. They have no difficulty with facts (version 1 of reality) and can tell you easily if something is true or false ("Is the moon made of rocks? Yes! Is the moon made of cheese? No!"). But they may be puzzled by version 2 of reality, that "John believes the moon is made of cheese." Why would a person believe something that is untrue?They have major difficulties grasping that another person might hold a false belief that to that person is true. A large body of experimental research shows that while the typical child achieves this understanding easily by four years old, children with autism are to varying degrees delayed in this area of development. As a result, they show some degree of "mindblindness." Even the higher-functioning children on the autistic spectrum, such as those with Asperger's syndrome, show delays in the development of mind-reading ability. This neurological (and ultimately genetic) set of conditions can leave the person with autism or Asperger's syndrome prey to deception and exploitation.
[snip]
And even after twenty-five years in the field of autism, I am still shocked. A Ph.D. student with Asperger's syndrome said to me last week, "I've just discovered that people don't always say what they mean. So how do you know how to trust language?" Her "discovery" at the age of twenty-seven is one that the typical child makes at age four, in the teasing interactions of the playground.
Hat Tip: The always interesting MindHacks.
Comments (2)
This is something that I have wondered about, the connection between the ability to dissemble and abstraction. There is a boy with aspergers, seventeen, at my church. He has a really strong interest in music and as I am a songwriter, he and I have become pretty good friends. I have also been teaching him the basics of music theory, because he really wants to write music.
The experience is extremely entertaining at times. It is hard to explain, but his approach to songwriting, is very literal. He uses absolutely no abstractions, seems incapable of it. This wouldn't be so strange, but for the fact that my writing is replete with abstractions and I am his first actual music teacher (beyond the basic playing with various instruments in school). He tries, because he really wants to emulate me, but it just won't come out.
The other thing that I've noticed, is that he gets very uncomfortable, hanging out with me, when I am working. He really wants to do it, but I tend to be very stream of conscious when I write. I go off on tangents, writing bits and chunks of several songs at once. This seems to make him very uncomfortable. When he is writing, he gets very focused, on the predetermined section of a piece he is working on. He simply won't stop until he's satisfied with what he was trying to accomplish. I've learned to set very strict, reasonable goals when we work together. Goals that he can easily accomplish within a few hours.
All in all, the experience has led me to decide to go to school to study education, with a focus on working with young adults with autism (I also want to study educational theory, but that is unrelated). I can't begin to say how much I have gotten out of working with this kid. To say that he has forced me out of my box, would be an understatement. He has forced me to look at and work in my craft, through a whole new frame. I think that it has definitely had a fairly powerful, positive impact on the work that I produce. For that matter, our friendship has had a strong impact on my perception of the world around me, especially hanging out with him and my five year old son, together.
Posted by: DuWayne | July 25, 2007 3:47 AM