• Understanding Autism from the Inside

    “Academics came easily to me. The rest of life—not so much.”
  • This post may contain affiliate links and we may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

Are your ASD kids more trusting that other kids?

liar liar

 

I came across a “new” study today that said that ASD kids are more trusting than their neuro-typical counterparts, and am wondering what is new about this information? I’ve know that I’ve been too trusting for years—in fact, I wrote about this exact subject in a post a year and a half ago, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire; Why do we believe them?

Here is today’s Answers.com article:

Autistic Children are More Trusting than Their Peers

 

So What do you think? I find this to be absolutely true—I am too trusting, have difficult generalizing, and basically tend to believe a person’s lies way too  many times before I “get” it!  It’s frustrating because many times I feel like I should already know better.

What about you, or your ASD kids? Are they too trusting?

I know that I have a 9-year-old who has never met a stranger? He gives out my cellphone number to strange people in the park without thinking twice about it. He thinks he “knows” someone if he knows their name (because he just asked them two second ago), and often believes the same friend’s lies over and over again despite the fact he was lied to the day before!  (Sounds eerily familiar…to myself)

 

[ googleplusauthor ]

Jeannie Davide-Rivera

Jeannie is an award-winning author, the Answers.com Autism Category Expert, contributes to Autism Parenting Magazine, and the Thinking Person's Guide to Autism. She lives in New York with her husband and four sons, on the autism spectrum.

6 Comments:

  1. I don’t trust strangers at all, but I don’t trust anyone I know anyway, not even my family (who seem to think that I am the one misunderstanding when they do stupid things that upset me)

  2. yeah it seems i trust people more than i should sometimes too. and sometimes i choose someone i think i click with and i want to be their BFF right now, and therefore, i trust them right away too and it ends up biting me in the butt almost every time.

    i think my son trusts people too. and he really holds a grudge when he is slighted. 🙁

  3. Oh, God, yes! I think it’s because we are pretty much guileless. We tend to expect the same of others, though the rest of the world doesn’t work that way. Unfortunately, being taken advantage of has taught me to be very distrustful.

    • I was just mentioning that tendency to become distrustful in my response to the above poster Jennifer. I think that we Aspies tend to do everything to the fullest extend…all of nothing. If we are going to be suspicious or distrustful–we are going to be VERY suspicious or distrustful! No sense in doing anything half way!

  4. My observation is that because the ASD child would not lie about something they do not expect others to do so. I’ve been told that lies are not profitable and so doing them hurts yourself– this given as a reason why the speaker expected the other person to tell the truth. Another said that they “owe” other people the truth and expect everyone to understand this and follow it. Still another reason seems to be that the ASD person firmly believes in working toward a win-win situation and lies do not serve to attain that goal, they are shocked when the other person prefers to lie to win rather than seek the double win solution that benefits everyone.

    It is a common problem, and makes ASD persons vulnerable to predators and con artists. I’d love to hear a solution, a logical reasoning that an ASD person could adopt which would aid them in recognizing persons of bad character faster.

    • I was definitely nodding my head in agreement while reading your comments Ann. It reminded me so much of my favorite Khaled Hosseini quotes:

      “But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.”

      “And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”

      “There is only one sin. and that is theft… when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth.”

      ― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

      I think unfortunately what can happen is we can develop a very cynical and distrustful nature (which does not, I believe, come natural to us). I too would love to hear from others if they have a logical and adoptable method of recognizing these bad characters. I find myself constantly believing lies (from people I know or care about), when, dear God, I should know better!

      The same, however, does not apply to strangers, or bureaucrats, etc. I now tend to be very distrustful of anything they tell me. I suppose some lessons learned, albeit, very slowly.

Comments are closed

  • Autism Family Travels at Passportsandpushpins.com

    [instagram-feed]