This document provides an update from the University of Edinburgh on the Diversity in Social Intelligence project. It discusses that the project has received funding for a multi-site replication study. It also discusses several papers published from the project analyzing rapport and social signals in autistic and non-autistic interactions. Additional research discussed includes studies on autistic peer support in schools and post-diagnostic support, as well as related papers on neurodevelopmental research methods and social prescribing for autistic people.
This document provides an update from the University of Edinburgh on the Diversity in Social Intelligence project. It discusses that the project has received funding for a multi-site replication study. It also discusses several papers published from the project analyzing rapport and social signals in autistic and non-autistic interactions. Additional research discussed includes studies on autistic peer support in schools and post-diagnostic support, as well as related papers on neurodevelopmental research methods and social prescribing for autistic people.
Original Title
Diversity in Social Intelligence Winter 2021 Newsletter
This document provides an update from the University of Edinburgh on the Diversity in Social Intelligence project. It discusses that the project has received funding for a multi-site replication study. It also discusses several papers published from the project analyzing rapport and social signals in autistic and non-autistic interactions. Additional research discussed includes studies on autistic peer support in schools and post-diagnostic support, as well as related papers on neurodevelopmental research methods and social prescribing for autistic people.
This document provides an update from the University of Edinburgh on the Diversity in Social Intelligence project. It discusses that the project has received funding for a multi-site replication study. It also discusses several papers published from the project analyzing rapport and social signals in autistic and non-autistic interactions. Additional research discussed includes studies on autistic peer support in schools and post-diagnostic support, as well as related papers on neurodevelopmental research methods and social prescribing for autistic people.
We hope that you’re keeping safe & well. It’s been a busy year for us – the ongoing pandemic has meant that the way we do research has had to change for the time being. We’ve been working on the Diversity in Social Intelligence and associated projects and have a few updates to share with you. Below is a summary of what we’ve been up to over the past year since our last update and details of where you can find more information about our research.
New Diversity in Social Intelligence Replication!
We were absolutely delighted to be awarded funding by the Templeton World Charity Foundation to carry out a multi-site replication of the Diversity in Social Intelligence Project!
This means that we will re-do the study in a larger, more diverse, and international sample. It’s important to do replications of research findings to provide solid foundations for advocating for changes in policy and practice – and because we’ll be recruiting more participants, we’ll be able to look more closely at the different ways that people interact and the factors that might drive this.
The team will include Catherine Crompton & Sue Fletcher-Watson who led the original study, along with Noah Sasson from the University of Texas at Dallas, and Danielle Ropar from the University of Nottingham. For this project, we’re currently recruiting a Research Assistant at the University of Edinburgh (deadline 7th January), a Post-Doctoral Researcher based at the University of Nottingham (deadline 9th January), and a Post-Doctoral Researcher based at the University of Texas at Dallas (deadline 31st January). If you’re into autism research, neurodiversity and communication and are interested in one of these posts, please do consider applying. can click the links for more information & please do share this with anyone who may be interested! Informal queries can be sent to catherine.crompton@ed.ac.uk.
In 2022 and 2023, we'll be looking for autistic & non-autistic participants in Dallas, Nottingham & Edinburgh. If you would like to register your interest to take part, please email us at dart@ed.ac.uk. Please feel free to pass on this email address to other people who may be interested– we’re happy to answer any questions!
Helping young people understand double empathy
We were very excited to create an article about the double
empathy problem specifically for young people!
Along with Kilee Debrabander & Noah Sasson in the USA
and Damian Milton and Brett Heasman in the UK, we wrote Double Empathy: Why Autistic People Are Often Misunderstood for Frontiers for Young Minds, an open access scientific journal for young people between 8-15 years old. We explained some of the research about how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, and how this fits with the double empathy theory. We hope that understanding what makes interaction comfortable for different people can help us understand each other better, and were very happy to be able to share this specifically with a younger audience. University of Edinburgh
Diversity in Social Intelligence
Winter 2021 Update
Rapport in autistic and non-autistic interactions
In our Diversity in Social Intelligence study, we were interested in the ways that autistic and non-autistic people communicate, share information, and build rapport. Our recent paper looks more closely at the rapport that people experience within autistic pairs, non-autistic pairs, and mixed pairs. We explored both self-rated rapport (the rapport that someone feels during an interaction) and observer-rated rapport (by asking someone to watch a video of an interaction and rating how well they thought the people got on). We found that autistic people experience high rapport when interacting with other autistic people, and this is also detected by external observers. You can read the paper by clicking here.
We also wanted to find out if there were specific markers of rapport
in autistic and non-autistic interactions. In this study, we explored whether there were differences in the social signals of mutual gaze (looking at each other) and backchanneling (for example nodding, or making sounds like “mhmm”) in autistic, non-autistic & mixed pairs and whether this helped or hurt the interactions in terms of rapport. We found that in mixed interactions, there was less of both mutual gaze and backchanneling than in non-autistic interactions, combined with lower rapport scores. Autistic interactions also contained less backchanneling, though also had showed high rapport scores.
Previous research suggests that differences in social signals exist
between autistic and non-autistic people that may contribute to social difficulties between neurotypes. This study shows that there may be differences in social signals between autistic and non-autistic people that contribute to social difficulties between them. This paper was led by Olivia Rifai, a PhD student who collaborated with Sue and Catherine. You can read the full paper by clicking here.
We are still analysing data from the Diversity in Social Intelligence
project and hope to have more results over the next year. All our papers are open-access and available on our website. University of Edinburgh
Diversity in Social Intelligence
Winter 2021 Update
Autistic peer support
Peer support in schools Post-diagnostic peer Last year, we ran a study where young autistic adults were interviewed support about their school experiences and asked about peer support frameworks within mainstream secondary schools: would this be useful and wanted, We've also been running a study on post- and what might some challenges be? diagnostic peer support. We know that post-diagnostic support often doesn't meet Our paper from the original project is currently under review but will the needs of autistic people, and many hopefully be out early next year & we will share it then. You can see a people don't get any support at all. We've poster summarising our results here, and a talk about our findings here. been interviewing autistic people who This research also formed the basis of a webinar in the Neurodiversity in received a diagnosis in adulthood about Mental Health webinar series, a collaboration between the Salvesen whether peer support may be helpful for Mindroom Research Centre, Selkirk High School, and The Harris Trust, and them. a policy brief about autistic communication and peer engagement. We've submitted a paper on this which we Following on from this project, we'll be launching the Neurodiversity hope will be out next year and we can Alliance project in Spring 2022. This will involve co-designing a share with you then. In the meantime, you neurodiversity-informed peer support model for use in mainstream can see a poster summarising our results secondary schools. It will be trialled in three schools, and evaluated to here. investigate its impact on neurodivergent pupils’ educational engagement, inclusion, and wellbeing.
If you know a school who might be interested in taking part in the trial, please email catherine.crompton@ed.ac.uk. We'll be advertising a post- doc role on this project in January too!
Other new papers
What do new findings about Inclusive practice for Social prescribing for autistic social interaction mean for neurodevelopmental research people neurodevelopmental research?
With Rachael Davis, we published a Along with Sonny Hallett, Fergus We collaborated with colleagues in paper that explores what new findings Murray, Kabie Brook, and Sue- the Autistica Physical Health and about social interaction in autism Fletcher-Watson, we published a Ageing Study Group on a paper means for the future of review of inclusive research methods examining the factors that should be neurodevelopmental research. In this for neurodevelopmental research in considered when offering social paper, we talk about how future particular, briefly describing a range prescribing to autistic adults to research might include examining of inclusive research models and optimise outcomes for physical and autistic social styles over the lifespan, justifying their use. You can find the mental well-being. You can read the and how bridging the gap between paper here. paper here. different interaction styles can reduce stigma and increase understanding. University of Edinburgh
Diversity in Social Intelligence
Winter 2021 Update
PhD Student Projects
Autistic-autistic Understanding experiences
communication of the autistic community for all autistic adults Holly Sutherland started her PhD on autistic communication with Sue Fletcher-Watson, Eilidh Cage (University of Stirling), Joe Long Catherine Crompton, and Joe Long (Scottish (Scottish Autism) and Catherine Crompton Autism) last September. The team was awarded were awarded funding from the Scottish funding from Medical Research Scotland for a Graduate School of Social Sciences for a PhD studentship. Holly's work aims to help us PhD studentship about autistic community. understand more about the ways autistic and This studentship was awarded to George non-autistic people communicate in different Watts, who started in September 2021. settings. You can read more about Holly's project here.
The Patrick Wild Centre Database
The Patrick Wild Centre at the University of Edinburgh has a new Participant Database. Joining the database means that you will receive news about research projects looking for participants who match your personal profile. You can read more about the Participant Database on our website on the “Register with the PWC” page, and on the “Frequently Asked Questions” page. If you want to stay in touch with us and join the Participant Database, then please click here to complete a short online consent form.
The Patrick Wild Centre appreciates you supporting our research. Participating in research really helps to increase the chance we can make a positive difference in people’s lives.
Keeping in touch
If you would like to hear more about the work of the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh, please join our mailing list. We send newsletters twice a year with news, events and research updates and opportunities.
You can join the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre mailing list by clicking here.
