ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2023
Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Research Review: Conceptualizing and measuring 'problem behavior' in early intervention autism research - a project AIM secondary systematic review.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Pooled it
- "They Really Save Us From Ourselves" : Autism Researchers' Insights on Community Engagement and Ethics.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2026Article
- Ableism in Applied Behavior Analysis: Historical Context of Services for Autistic People.Behavior analysis in practice · 2026Review
- Self-Reported Strengths and Difficulties by Autistic Young Adults.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Understanding phenomenological experiences of autistic inertia using online community discourse.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Situating genetic counseling research: The role of the sociopolitical climate in research production and interpretation.Journal of genetic counseling · 2025Article
- Researcher-Reported Variables Needed for Translation of Social Communication Evidence-Based Practices for Elementary-Aged Students with Autism.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Review
- Autism ableism seen through research abstract contents: A mixed-methods analysis of language in NIH-funded genetic and genomic autism research.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2025Article
- 'I don't think they understand the reality of autism': The lived experiences of autistic adults in Japan.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2025Article
- Measurement of Anxiety and Depression Among Autistic Adults: Concordance Between Diagnostic and Screening Instruments in a Feasibility Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- A novel method for examining autistic children's comprehension of individual words produced within delayed echolalia: a proof-of-concept pilot study.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Commentary: Toward a more comprehensive autism assessment: the survey of autistic strengths, skills, and interests.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It was recently argued that autism researchers committed to rejecting ableist frameworks in their research may sacrifice "scientifically accurate" conceptualizations of autism. In this perspective piece, we argue that: (a) anti-ableism vs. scientific accuracy is a false dichotomy, (b) there is no ideology-free science that has claim to scientific accuracy, and (c) autism science has a history of false leads in part because of unexamined ableist ideologies that undergird researcher framings and interpretations of evidence. To illustrate our claims, we discuss several avenues of autism research that were promoted as scientific advances, but were eventually debunked or shown to have much less explanatory value than initially proposed. These research programs have involved claims about autism etiology, the nature of autism and autistic characteristics, and autism intervention. Common to these false leads have been ableist assumptions about autism that inform researcher perspectives. Negative impacts of this work have been mitigated in some areas of autism research, but these perspectives continue to exert influence on the lives of autistic people, including the availability of services, discourses about autism, and sociocultural conceptualizations of autistic people. Examining these false leads may help current researchers better understand how ableism may negatively influence their areas of inquiry. We close with a positive argument that promoting anti-ableism can be done in tandem with increasing scientific accuracy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.