A well-established psychological theory states that most of us are less likely to intervene in a bad situation if other people are present, and this 'bystander effect' also applies to workplace settings. However, new research shows that people with autism are less likely to be affected by this social contagion than neurotypical people. They are less likely to stay silent in the face of gross misconduct or even just everyday mistakes, pointing to the positive aspects of autism and how organizations can benefit from hiring more neurodivergent people, findings reveal.
  • jetAEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been a bystander in my own life the whole time. I have domain experience

    • Kyrgizion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Lol isn’t that the truth. But in all seriousness, I’ve been the one to call emergency services in more than a few occasions when no one else did diddly squat but gape.

      • jetAEnglish
        31·
        1 year ago

        One of the great things about being neurodivergent your whole life, you don’t expect other people to understand what you understand. Without hours of explanation… So any emergency becomes your emergency.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    "Our study shows that to the extent that they would act if they saw something wrong, employees with autism were much more likely to intervene, regardless of the number of people present.

    And in situations where they would not intervene, they were more likely to identify the influence of others as the reason, whereas neurotypical employees were more reluctant to acknowledge this," says lead author Lorne Hartman, an instructor with the Schulich School of Business.

    Lorne has a background in clinical psychology and his main area of research looks at unethical behaviour in organizations.

    “But most importantly, in all of these cases, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people who may not have actually been involved in the wrongdoing, but they should have been aware that it was going on,” he says, summarizing his earlier research.

    The study was published this week in the October issue of Autism Research and created with collaborators from the University of Toronto.

    The research participants – employed individuals, 33 with autism and 34 neurotypical – were asked to weigh in on hypothetical scenarios involving everything from inefficiencies to inequalities to quality concerns.

    The original article contains 483 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!