The Impact of Autism-Affirming and Stigmatizing Cues on Autistic Adults' Efforts to Camouflage: A Social Psychological Demonstration

Background: Camouflaging is a strategy widely used by autistic individuals to conceal their autistic behaviors in response to stigma; however, it is also associated with negative mental health outcomes. Because identity cues in social environments can signal either stigma or safety and shape how individuals experience their identity, they may also directly influence the extent to which autistic people engage in camouflaging. In a social psychological experiment, we examined the extent to which autistic adults adjust their camouflaging efforts in response to autism-affirming or stigmatizing identity cues within a controlled setting. Method: Using the Highly-Repeated Within-Person design, we tracked 135 autistic adults’ reports of camouflaging efforts across 24 hypothetical situations each featuring either autism-affirming or autism-stigmatizing identity cues. Results: Most participants reported significantly less camouflaging efforts in situations with autism-affirming (vs. autism-stigmatizing) cues. This was particularly the case for those who more strongly identified with the autistic community. The study also demonstrated substantial diversity among autistic individuals in the effect of identity cue type on camouflaging efforts, even after accounting for participants' strength of identification with the autistic community. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that autism-affirming cues can create environments where autistic people feel safe to express themselves authentically. At the same time, the finding that identity cues influenced camouflaging efforts differently for each participant highlights the limitations of a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, underscoring the need to further explore individual differences among autistic adults.