Do Autistic People Have Degrees of Disability in Theory of Mind? The Importance of Meta-Analytic Convergence
We are pleased to be invited to comment on the article by Travis LaCroix regarding theory of mind (ToM) in autism. We make one key point: LaCroix’ claim that the hypothesis of ToM disability in autism should be rejected ignores converging evidence from a staggering number of meta-analyses. We argue that an impartial reading of the meta-analytic literature, covering empirical evidence from over 40 years of painstaking research, leads to the following conclusion: on average, autistic people compared to the general population have degrees of disability in ToM.
Authors
- Marcin A. Radecki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8702-2381)
- Alan M. Leslie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4834-633X)
- Meng‐Chuan Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9593-5508)
- Ami Klin
- Sarah J. White (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7458-705X)
- Florina Uzefovsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4571-2514)
- Alex Tsompanidis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7338-6536)
- Michael Lombardo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6780-8619)
- Rebecca Saxe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791)
- Carrie Allison
- David Greenberg
- Uta Frith
- Simon Baron-Cohen
- Helen Tager-Flusberg
- Varun Warrier
- Simone Shamay-Tsoory
Publication Details
- Journal
- Apollo (University of Cambridge)
- Published
- 2025-10-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.124052
- Primary Topic
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00