Overgeneralization - not universally applicable to autistic people.

“Impression” may be irrelevant or not even visible as a concept. If pleasing people is a goal but the results seemingly random, then there will be anxiety in each particle/granule of interaction (or “presence”, if interaction is too complex a concept for a particular autistic person) rather than the development of a larger-scope “this is what I want the other person(s) to think of me”.

One could also just “do the next right thing” and let the terms of the social algebra go to zero or 1, thus simplifying matters by dropping out of consideration. (For non-math folks, that means that simplifying assumptions are made.)

Who ever heard of rocking or flapping one’s way to impression management? Or of implementing Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by studied avoidance of eye contact and stentorian monotone? The consequences of this misconception can be devastating for autism-spectrum people, because our genuine differences and struggles are rendered voluntary: if we’re doing them, it must be because we want to, and if there’s something we can’t do it’s because we don’t want to, period. Efforts to persuade otherwise may not help, as the more carefully they are crafted to be understandable by neurotypicals, the more likely they well be seized upon as evidence that we really can sound like everyone else if we want to.

Last revised: June 18, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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