White, R;
Remington, AM;
(2019)
Short Report: Object Personification in Autism (this paper will be very sad if you don’t read it).
Autism
, 23
(4)
pp. 1042-1045.
10.1177/1362361318793408.
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Abstract
Object personification is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human agents. In online forums, autistic individuals commonly report experiencing this phenomenon. Given that approximately half of all autistic individuals experience difficulties identifying their own emotions, the suggestion that object personification may be a feature of autism seems almost paradoxical. Why would a person experience sympathy for objects, when they struggle to understand and verbalise the emotions of other people as well as their own? An online survey was used to assess tendency for personification in 87 autistic and 263 non-autistic adults. Together, our results indicate that object personification occurs commonly among autistic individuals, and perhaps more often (and later in life) than in the general population. Given that in many cases, autistic people report their personification experiences as distressing, it is important to now consider the reasons for the increased personification, and identify structures for support.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Short Report: Object Personification in Autism (this paper will be very sad if you don’t read it) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/1362361318793408 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361318793408 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10053878 |
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