The Effect of Educational Messages on Implicit and Explicit Attitudes towards Individuals on the Autism Spectrum versus Normally Developing Individuals

This study extended previous research on the effect of education and communication on anti-autism bias and stigmatization, using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as an assessment tool and employing undergraduates as participants. Experiment 1 examined the effect of a simple video and text-based educational intervention on attitudes towards autism, as assessed both using the IRAP and various explicit measures. Participants received either an educational video–text combination or a control video–text combination before exposure to the assessments. Findings showed positive responding towards both normally developing and autism spectrum individuals across both conditions on both the IRAP and the explicit measures. Experiment 2 investigated the effects of two different types of online video-based narrative regarding autism, one negatively oriented and the other positively oriented, on both implicit and explicit responding. Findings suggested that the negative video affected both implicit and explicit responding, albeit in different ways. Responding on the IRAP showed a stronger pro-normally developing bias whereas explicit responding showed a stronger anti-autism bias. Implications and possible future directions are discussed.