Comparing Self-Perceptions, Meta-Perceptions, and Peer Judgments of the Academic Experience of Autistic and Non-Autistic University Students.

🥉 Top 5% JournalSep 11, 2025Autism in adulthood

How Autistic and Non-Autistic University Students See Their Academic Experience Compared to How They Think Others See Them and How Peers Actually See Them

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Abstract

Autistic students were rated less favorably than non-autistic students on most academic measures.

Nineteen autistic and 19 non-autistic students reported on their academic experiences.
Autistic students received lower ratings on academic success, happiness, and grades compared to non-autistic students, except for motivation to study.
Non-autistic perceivers showed a strong negative bias against autistic students' academic experiences.
Both autistic and non-autistic participants were unaware of how they were perceived by their peers.
The autistic group expected to be viewed more positively than they actually were.
This negative perception could affect the academic outcomes of autistic students by limiting their social and learning opportunities.

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BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that, when presented with brief samples of behavior, non-autistic university students judge autistic peers less favorably than non-autistic peers on measures of academic experience (e.g., motivation to study, academic success, average grades). The current research aimed to determine whether these judgments accurately reflect the academic experiences of the autistic students, or represent a bias of non-autistic perceivers. We also investigated whether autistic students are aware of how they are perceived by their peers.

METHODS: Nineteen autistic and 19 non-autistic students (stimulus participants) were video recorded while completing a questionnaire about their academic experience. They self-reported their level of academic success, motivation to study, happiness at university, and average grades. They also reported their meta-perceptions about the same measures. Recorded videos were presented to 30 new non-autistic students (perceivers), who were asked to judge each stimulus participants' academic success, motivation to study, happiness at university, and grades.

RESULTS: Autistic stimulus participants were rated less positively than non-autistic stimulus participants on all measures except motivation to study. Comparison with participants' self-reports showed that perceivers' judgments had a strong negative bias for ratings of autistic stimulus participants, but this bias was also present for non-autistic stimulus participants on some measures. Comparison of perceiver perceptions with stimulus participants' meta-perceptions showed that neither group of participants was aware how they were perceived, and the autistic group expected to be perceived in an overly positive way.

CONCLUSIONS: We replicated previous research showing autistic people are perceived less favorably by non-autistic others in relation to their academic experience. As the perceptions were not accurate, we suggest this reflects a persistent bias in the perception of autistic people. Nevertheless, over time this bias could genuinely impact academic outcomes of autistic students, if it leads to exclusion from social and peer learning opportunities.

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