Autism Knowledge Matters: Perceptions of an Autistic Employee’s Competency and Attitudes Toward Workplace Social Inclusion

Background: Autistic adults continue to have significant challenges obtaining and sustaining employment in a majority non-autistic world. Autistic adult employment challenges are often linked to differences in social behavior in the workplace compared with non-autistic adults. A lack of knowledge of autism and misunderstandings of autistic social behavior may result in negative perceptions of an autistic employee’s competency and their social acceptability as a coworker. Autistic adult employment support planning is informed by identifying factors linked to favorable perceptions of autistic employees. This study examined neurotype (autistic/non-autistic), interpretation of autistic employee behavior (understanding thoughts, feelings, and intentions behind behavior), autism knowledge, and autism experience as factors associated with perceptions of an autistic employee. Methods: Participants (77 autistic and 152 non-autistic) read a vignette describing a hypothetical autistic employee having a challenging workday. Participants completed measures of autism knowledge, autism experience, interpretation of the employee’s behavior, and perceptions of the employee’s competency and social acceptability as a potential coworker. Results: Autism knowledge significantly predicted more favorable ratings of the hypothetical autistic employee’s competency and suitability for their job ( b = 0.581, p < 0.001) and social acceptability as a potential coworker ( b = 0.439, p < 0.001), regardless of participant neurotype, behavior interpretation ability, and autism experience. However, autism knowledge was significantly more influential on competency and social acceptability scale scores when participants scored inaccurately on behavior interpretation ( b = −0.243, p = 0.02; b = −0.282, p = 0.01). Conclusions: This study associated greater knowledge of autism with more favorable perceptions of an autistic employee’s competence and social acceptability in the workplace. Findings point to autism workplace education as a promising support to address employment challenges for autistic adults. More favorable perceptions of autistic employees have the potential to reduce their need to mask autistic characteristics at work, improve their quality of work life, and support autistic adult employment success.