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Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy

It was recently argued that autism researchers committed to rejecting ableist frameworks in their research may sacrifice “scientifically accurate” conceptualizations of autism. In this perspective piece, we argue that: (a) anti-ableism vs. scientific accuracy is a false dichotomy, (b) there is no id...

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Autores principales: Bottema-Beutel, Kristen, Kapp, Steven K., Sasson, Noah, Gernsbacher, Morton Ann, Natri, Heini, Botha, Monique
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10514488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37743979
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1244451
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author Bottema-Beutel, Kristen
Kapp, Steven K.
Sasson, Noah
Gernsbacher, Morton Ann
Natri, Heini
Botha, Monique
author_facet Bottema-Beutel, Kristen
Kapp, Steven K.
Sasson, Noah
Gernsbacher, Morton Ann
Natri, Heini
Botha, Monique
author_sort Bottema-Beutel, Kristen
collection PubMed
description It was recently argued that autism researchers committed to rejecting ableist frameworks in their research may sacrifice “scientifically accurate” conceptualizations of autism. In this perspective piece, we argue that: (a) anti-ableism vs. scientific accuracy is a false dichotomy, (b) there is no ideology-free science that has claim to scientific accuracy, and (c) autism science has a history of false leads in part because of unexamined ableist ideologies that undergird researcher framings and interpretations of evidence. To illustrate our claims, we discuss several avenues of autism research that were promoted as scientific advances, but were eventually debunked or shown to have much less explanatory value than initially proposed. These research programs have involved claims about autism etiology, the nature of autism and autistic characteristics, and autism intervention. Common to these false leads have been ableist assumptions about autism that inform researcher perspectives. Negative impacts of this work have been mitigated in some areas of autism research, but these perspectives continue to exert influence on the lives of autistic people, including the availability of services, discourses about autism, and sociocultural conceptualizations of autistic people. Examining these false leads may help current researchers better understand how ableism may negatively influence their areas of inquiry. We close with a positive argument that promoting anti-ableism can be done in tandem with increasing scientific accuracy.
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spelling pubmed-105144882023-09-23 Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy Bottema-Beutel, Kristen Kapp, Steven K. Sasson, Noah Gernsbacher, Morton Ann Natri, Heini Botha, Monique Front Psychiatry Psychiatry It was recently argued that autism researchers committed to rejecting ableist frameworks in their research may sacrifice “scientifically accurate” conceptualizations of autism. In this perspective piece, we argue that: (a) anti-ableism vs. scientific accuracy is a false dichotomy, (b) there is no ideology-free science that has claim to scientific accuracy, and (c) autism science has a history of false leads in part because of unexamined ableist ideologies that undergird researcher framings and interpretations of evidence. To illustrate our claims, we discuss several avenues of autism research that were promoted as scientific advances, but were eventually debunked or shown to have much less explanatory value than initially proposed. These research programs have involved claims about autism etiology, the nature of autism and autistic characteristics, and autism intervention. Common to these false leads have been ableist assumptions about autism that inform researcher perspectives. Negative impacts of this work have been mitigated in some areas of autism research, but these perspectives continue to exert influence on the lives of autistic people, including the availability of services, discourses about autism, and sociocultural conceptualizations of autistic people. Examining these false leads may help current researchers better understand how ableism may negatively influence their areas of inquiry. We close with a positive argument that promoting anti-ableism can be done in tandem with increasing scientific accuracy. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10514488/ /pubmed/37743979 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1244451 Text en Copyright © 2023 Bottema-Beutel, Kapp, Sasson, Gernsbacher, Natri and Botha. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Bottema-Beutel, Kristen
Kapp, Steven K.
Sasson, Noah
Gernsbacher, Morton Ann
Natri, Heini
Botha, Monique
Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
title Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
title_full Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
title_fullStr Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
title_full_unstemmed Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
title_short Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
title_sort anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10514488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37743979
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1244451
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