Abstract
Individuals’ knowledge and attitudes about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) work together to shape the stigma held about ASD. One way that this information is communicated to the public is through popular media; however, little is known about the effectiveness of fictional depictions of ASD in educating and shaping attitudes about ASD. The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact media has on knowledge about and attitudes towards ASD, compared to that of a college lecture on the subject. Exposure to one episode of a fictional drama depicting ASD, compared to watching a lecture, resulted in more accurate knowledge, more positive characteristics associated with ASD, fewer negative characteristics associated with ASD, and a greater desire to learn more about ASD.
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Notes
In constructing this measure, White and colleagues acknowledged that, due to the heterogeneous nature of ASD, some individuals with ASD may demonstrate some of the “incorrect” behaviors; however, these behaviors were not considered typical of college students with ASD.
Despite the fact that gender was only related to the desire to learn more about ASD, we controlled for gender in our analyses across dependent measures, as requested by a reviewer due to the imbalance of male and female participants in our sample.
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The following authors contributed to this research: Stephanie C. Stern and Jennifer L. Barnes. Both authors are affiliated with the University of Oklahoma.
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Stern, S.C., Barnes, J.L. Brief Report: Does Watching The Good Doctor Affect Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Autism?. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 2581–2588 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03911-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03911-7