Neurodiversity Benefits: People with Autism Display Higher Levels of Rationality in Decision Making

Recruiting, hiring and managing a neurodiverse workforce shouldn't be an obligation, a series of "diversity, equity and inclusion" boxes to tick. Intelligent, adaptive, inclusive companies know that people with neurodiverse conditions -- different ways of processing and reacting to information -- can bring all sorts of strengths to the table not despite their conditions, but because of them.

For example: Could an employee on the autism spectrum be your company’s most rational decision-maker?

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that’s entirely possible.

When people face decisions – at work, at home, in daily life -- a lot of subconscious filters and biases can get in the way of processing the information on which we base those decisions. Emotion, past experience, context: All of these things lead to mental shortcuts along the way, and those shortcuts don’t always serve us well.

Another hurdle to rational decision making is the “framing effect,” which relates to our willingness to take or avoid risks based on whether the consequences are framed positively or negatively. Simply put, people are more inclined to favor perceived gains and avoid perceived losses when making choices, even when the outcomes are identical.

But because of the way people with autism process information, the MIT researchers wrote, they’re less likely to fall back on those shortcuts and biases and more likely to make decisions based on the facts pertinent to the situation at hand. People with autism are also less likely to display optimism bias – the tendency to push aside unfavorable information but revise their thinking upward when presented with information favoring a positive outcome.

Also, people with autism are less likely to buy into and base their decisions on stereotypes related to ethnicity, gender and other factors.

For more on neurodiversity -- and how to effectively recruit, hire and manage people with neurodiverse conditions -- check out this one-hour webinar: Managing Neurodiversity in the Workplace

Making the most of your autistic workers’ abilities in the area of rational choice will require several things, though:

1. No bit of information can be held back, even if it seems unfavorable. That means, when laying out the pros and cons of each decision, you can’t leave out the unfavorable information your own optimism bias wants to shove to the side.
2. You’ll need to provide the right environment for the process, and that means paying attention to the person’s individual comfort levels. For example, what many people would consider a negligible level of background noise – a fan, for example, or office discussions in conversational tones – might be uncomfortable for someone with autism.
3. Be prepared for blunt, unvarnished communications. People on the spectrum tend to be less “tuned in” to social cues, so if they’re not in favor of a course of action, they will likely say so in no uncertain terms without “softening” or “sandwich” comments. It’s important not to take that personally; the idea is being evaluated, not the person who came up with it.

Granted, each person with autism is different, and the research focused on people with stronger communications and cognitive skills.

Still, the researchers’ findings point up something more and more businesses are learning to their benefit:  Neurodiverse conditions (autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, attention deficit disorders and the like), long thought of as challenges to be overcome – or in some cases, barriers to employment in the first place – can provide advantages for employees with those conditions and the companies who hire them.

Making the most of the strengths of a neurodiverse workforce requires – well, it comes down to overcoming bias and judging each situation on its own, doesn’t it?

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