The link between autism and skills such as engineering, maths, physics and computing: a reply to Jarrold and Routh.
In the first edition of this journal, we published a paper reporting that fathers and grandfathers of children with autism were over-represented in the field of engineering. This result was interpreted as providing supporting evidence for the folk-psychology/folk-physics theory of autism. After carrying out further analyses on the same data, Jarrold and Routh found that fathers of children with autism were also over-represented in accountancy and science. They suggested that these results could either provide additional support for the folk-psychology/folk-physics theory or be accounted for by an over-representation of professionals amongst the fathers of children with autism. Here we present evidence that engineers are still over-represented among fathers of children with autism, even taking into account the professional bias.
Wheelwright
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Autism Research Centre, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
Baron-Cohen
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D000328:Adult; D001076:Aptitude; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D002321:Career Choice; D002648:Child; D003197:Computer Literacy; D004738:Engineering; D005220:Fathers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D010825:Physics