A study in the United Kingdom examined how people rated the performance of a candidate in a mock employment interview. Those who were told that the candidate was diagnosed with autism gave the candidate higher ratings compared to those who did not have this information. The study was published in Autism.
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, is a developmental disorder that negatively affects social interaction, communication, and behavior. It presents a wide range of challenges among those affected. Symptoms of autism usually appear in early childhood. They include difficulties in understanding social cues, repetitive behaviors, and highly focused interests or activities.
The severity and combination of symptoms can vary greatly, with some individuals requiring significant support in their daily lives, while others are able to live independently. In addition to the challenges, individuals with autism may possess unique strengths, such as exceptional memory, detailed observation skills, and expertise in specific areas of interest.
However, due to the unique behavioral characteristics of autistic individuals, they often face significant challenges in securing meaningful employment. In the UK, individuals with autism represent the most underemployed disability group. Studies have shown that navigating interview questions is a key challenge for them. Autistic individuals typically struggle with grasping the implicit expectations of interviewers, and their atypical emotional expressions, eye contact, and gestures can contribute to negative first impressions formed by interviewers.
Study author Jade Eloise Norris and his colleagues wanted to examine whether ratings autistic individuals receive on job interviews might be affected by whether the person rating them is aware of their diagnosis. They conducted a study comparing the ratings given to individuals with autism in mock job interviews under three different conditions: when raters were unaware of the diagnosis, when they were informed of the diagnosis, and when they were both informed of the diagnosis and provided additional information about it.
The study involved three groups of participants. Each group watched videos of mock job interviews featuring a candidate with autism and assessed the candidate’s performance. In a previous study, 36 participants viewed the videos without knowing the interviewees’ diagnoses. For the current study, the researchers recruited 98 raters: 48 knew about the autism diagnosis, and 50 were both informed of the diagnosis and received additional information about the disorder.
The results showed that raters who were aware of the interviewees’ autism diagnosis gave them higher ratings across all evaluated characteristics compared to those who were unaware. The presence of additional information about autism did not significantly alter the ratings. Raters informed of the interviewees’ autism diagnosis perceived them as more confident, motivated, knowledgeable, conscientious, competent, intelligent, good communicators, likeable, and easier to work with compared to ratings from those unaware of the diagnosis.
“Results demonstrated that candidates were perceived more favorably when raters were provided with their diagnostic label prior to watching the video, compared to no label. Providing further information about the diagnosis did not additionally improve perceptions over and above provision of the label alone,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the factors of perception of autistic individuals’ traits in job interview settings. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Most notably, data on ratings when raters were not aware of the diagnosis came from a previous study, while ratings in situations when raters were aware of the diagnosis came from this one. It is possible that the observed difference in ratings is at least partly due to some unaccounted procedural difference between studies. Studies applying random assignment into rater groups might not produce equal results.
The paper, “Disclosing an autism diagnosis improves ratings of candidate performance in employment interviews”, was authored by Jade Eloise Norris, Rachel Prosser, Anna Remington, Laura Crane, and Katie Maras.