1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,660 Hello, welcome to another episode of Unpacking Neuroqueerness. This is your host, George 2 00:00:06,660 --> 00:00:14,160 Muniz Gund. This episode is going to be a relatively short one, but in my opinion 3 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:24,920 a very important one. And it is why autistics are often accused of being untruthful. So 4 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:36,240 to start off this episode, I wanted to first remind everyone of the double empathy theory. 5 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:44,480 And for those that aren't familiar with the double empathy theory, the double empathy theory 6 00:00:44,480 --> 00:00:59,840 was developed by an autistic social psychologist in the UK named Damien Milton. And basically 7 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:08,600 it talks about how autistics have a different style of communication because out there in 8 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:16,040 the medical world we hear autistic people described as having deficits in communication, 9 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:23,880 but when you break it down, what it really is is a difference in communication. It's 10 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:30,080 kind of like speaking a different language. And this was discovered because studies were 11 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:38,440 done and they showed that autistic people actually communicate better from autistic person to 12 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:45,320 autistic person than neurotypicals do from neurotypical person to neurotypical person. 13 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:53,200 The biggest misunderstandings occur when neurotypicals and autistics try to communicate with each 14 00:01:53,200 --> 00:02:02,000 other because neurotypicals have certain ways of communicating which I'll get into and autistics 15 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:09,400 have other ways of communicating. So I also talk in a little more depth about the double 16 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:18,680 empathy theory in episode 12 of this podcast. It's one of the very early episodes, but I 17 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:25,000 do recommend checking that out because I feel like the double empathy theory is one of the 18 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:34,200 most important core parts of the neurodiversity paradigm. Anyways, so now I wanted to talk 19 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:39,560 about the main differences. I mean, there are a lot of things, but I'm going to talk 20 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:47,320 about the main thing, the main difference that I observe in between as an autistic person 21 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:53,000 growing up in a neurotypical society. This is what I've observed and I've also talked 22 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:00,320 to other autistics that have observed this about neurotypical communication. So neurotypicals 23 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:09,800 or non-autistics or even people that are neurodivergent but not autistic, they will 24 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:16,800 use direct communication, sorry, they will use non-direct communication. Autistics tend to 25 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:23,720 use direct communication with no hidden nonverbal implications. Now neurotypicals because of 26 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:30,000 the way they're raised and they're socialized in society, like you know, because of the 27 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:40,000 way basically like these social norms that we have in place today in most countries. 28 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:47,560 People are always scanning for nonverbal cues and expecting other people, including autistic 29 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:53,760 people, which don't communicate this way, to make corresponding facial expressions when 30 00:03:53,760 --> 00:04:07,120 speaking. And they also, they think, they study facial expressions as sometimes they 31 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:15,600 give more importance to the facial expression or the tone or whatnot instead of what's 32 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:27,000 actually being said. And that is a big disadvantage. These kind of social norms where people focus 33 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:37,040 a lot on eye contact and tone and facial expressions can harm autistics because autistics naturally 34 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:44,080 are averse to eye contact because of sensory overload and also because it's a lot, it can 35 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:48,680 be harder for us to focus on what the person is saying if we're looking at their eyes. 36 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:54,280 It's actually easier if we're not looking at their eyes. But people interpret not making 37 00:04:54,280 --> 00:05:03,800 eye contact. Neurotypical people tend to interpret that as being shady or evasive or hiding something. 38 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:12,960 And then also, autistic speak in a very monotone way and that can also be misread by neurotypicals 39 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:23,320 as being cold or careless or curt or blunt or whatnot. Like I've been misinterpreted 40 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:30,480 that way many times just for speaking in a more monotone voice. And then of course, with 41 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:36,400 facial expressions, autistic people, including myself, not everyone because every person, 42 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:43,680 every autistic person is different. But from what I've observed, most autistic people, 43 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:52,600 including myself, tend to not make a lot of different facial expressions while talking. 44 00:05:52,600 --> 00:06:04,160 Like sometimes for me, especially if I'm trying to make a point and really be as clear and 45 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:09,400 detailed as I can with something, I'm going to be very focused on my speech. And I'm going 46 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:15,800 to be saying a lot in my speech, but I might not be really paying attention to my facial 47 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:22,360 expressions. And my facial expressions might sometimes not correspond to the emotion I'm 48 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:34,160 feeling when I'm speaking. And a lot of us have kind of more blank face when we tend 49 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:38,920 to speak, even if we're really excited about something and we also get misinterpreted as 50 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:44,920 not being happy or not being excited about something when we are, but we're just really 51 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:56,800 focused on the words instead of whatever facial expressions we're making. So those are just 52 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:05,640 some reasons why kind of a basic rundown of why we tend to get misinterpreted for the 53 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:13,840 way we communicate, the way we speak, our intonation, our lack of facial expressions, 54 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:23,440 and our aversion to eye contact. So this is going to be another short but sweet episode 55 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:32,080 and hopefully you are able to get a lot out of it. Thank you for listening and I'll see 56 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:44,240 you guys next time.