Rather, this text will present material which others may use in investigating those questions. This investigation is not about autism spectrum disorder(s) per se, but rather about the manifestations of ASD.
Individuals with ASD often find it difficult to understand or interpret society’s unwritten rules. They are generally more skillful at navigating explicit and codified systems of behavior.
Societies vary in their levels of complexity, and in the extent to which their expectations about patterns of behavior are transparent. At one idealized extreme would be rigid and formalized societies whose rules could be specifically stated in words; at the other extreme are anarchic societies whose few and intricate rules might be subject to numerous exceptions.
Consider this example: imagine a society in which there is a general social rule, “men ought to wear their pants (jeans, trousers) so that the waistline of the pants are above their hips.” This is a clearly intelligible rule, which can be either explicitly taught or learned by induction.
Now, imagine another society in which this general rule applies to most people, but not to all people. Some people, aficionados of the hiphop or rap culture, are exempt from the rule, and wear their pants so that the waistline is below their hips; they are permitted to dress this way, without social ostracism or bearing other negative consequences.
For some individuals with ASD, the second society will present an opaque system. If they are told to pull up their pants, and if at the same time they are observing others wearing pants below the hips, they will, in the absence of explicit formulations given to them by others, find it difficult to induce or intuit the systematic rules in play.
Those who have spent substantial time inside an American public high school during the last decade of the twentieth century, or during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, will understand that this example is not hypothetical.
Another example: imagine a society in which the general rule is that men may wear hats outdoors, but should remove hats when coming indoors.
Then imagine a second society, in which some men are exempt from this rule, and wear baseball caps indoors.
Again, autists may find it difficult to discern the rules governing the second example. Others may need to offer them explanation and clarification.
These observations constitute primary data for investigations about ASD. From them, one may work out implications.
Tentative hypotheses present themselves. Perhaps some societies are easier than others for individuals with ASD to navigate. Perhaps increased numbers of diagnosed cases of autism are a result of societal changes which cause borderline or latent cases to become detectable. Perhaps borderline or latent cases go undetected in some societies but become noticeable in others.
Perhaps, in some societies, books like Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Emily Post’s Etiquette can serve individuals with ASD to make explicit those social expectations which are implicit.
In other societies, perhaps, the byzantine complexity of social rules and their numerous exceptions make it difficult or impossible to codify such rules in a usable form. Perhaps some societies have rules which can be, but simply never have been, codified.
Perhaps increased numbers of cases of autism in the United States in recent decades is due in part to the changing structures of society, if those structures are changing in directions which make society more difficult for individuals with ASD to navigate.
Perhaps, as North American society has changed in a direction away from rules which either are explicitly codified or at least capable of being explicitly codified, and has changed toward rules which are either not capable of being codified or at least have not been codified, it has become more difficult for individuals with ASD to navigate, and thereby caused latent or borderline cases to become detectable.
In this writing, no definite conclusions are drawn; much remains to be investigated. Presented are empirical data about the ways in which autists encounter the complexities of society.
