Autistic and Non-Autistic Undergraduates’ Responses to a Textbook Vignette on Autism

College students may encounter deficit-focused content about autism in classes they take—content that could shape their beliefs about autism and, for autistic students, negatively affect their self-esteem. In this study, we asked how autistic (n=86) and non-autistic (n=86) undergraduates in the United States responded to a short vignette from a popular psychology textbook, which portrays an autistic child in potentially stigmatizing ways. Autistic participants—particularly those who reported stronger autistic identity—rated the vignette as more offensive and stigmatizing than did non-autistic participants. Autistic participants also rated the vignette as less useful for understanding autism than did non-autistic participants. Finally, more autistic than non-autistic students reported lower self-esteem after reading the vignette compared to before reading it. These findings highlight the potential harms of deficit-focused portrayals of autism in educational materials and underscore the need for more respectful representations.