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Initial Evidence for Increased Weather Salience in Autism Spectrum Conditions
- Matthew J. Bolton
- William G. Blumberg
- H. Michael Mogil
- Lara K. Ault
- Stacie H. Hanes
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Category: Uncategorized
Description: Weather is important to all people, including vulnerable populations (those whose circumstances include cognitive processing, hearing, or vision differences, physical disability, homelessness, and other scenarios and factors). Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is a neurological condition that affects information-processing and areas of functioning that potentially inhibit the reception of hazardous weather information, and is of particular concern for weather messengers. People on the autism spectrum tend to score highly in tests of systemizing, a psychological process that heavily entails attention to detail and revolves around the creation of logical rules to explain things that occur in the world. This article reports the results of three studies examining weather salience – psychological attention to weather – and its potential relationships with systemizing in autistic people. Findings suggest that enhanced weather salience exists among autistic individuals compared to those without the condition, and that this may be moderated by systemizing. Implications for the weather salience and systemizing theories, and potential future work at the autism-weather intersection, are discussed.