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. 2022 Feb;26(2):406-421.
doi: 10.1177/13623613211026754. Epub 2021 Jun 26.

Self-reported camouflaging behaviours used by autistic adults during everyday social interactions

Julia Cook  1 , Laura Crane  1 , Laura Hull  1 , Laura Bourne  1 , William Mandy  1
Affiliations

Self-reported camouflaging behaviours used by autistic adults during everyday social interactions

Julia Cook et al. Autism. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Camouflaging can be thought of as the process through which autistic people modify their natural social behaviours to adapt to, cope within or influence the largely neurotypical (non-autistic) social world. Many autistic people experience negative reactions to their natural or intuitive social behaviours when interacting with non-autistic people. Over time, in response to these negative reactions, autistic people's social behaviour often changes. We refer to autistic people's changed behaviours as 'camouflaging behaviours'. Research exploring camouflaging behaviours is still at an early stage. This study investigated camouflaging behaviours used by autistic adults in everyday social interactions using a research method that was new to the field of autism. Specifically, 17 autistic adults were filmed taking part in a common everyday social situation - a conversation with a stranger. With the help of the video of this conversation, they then showed and described their camouflaging behaviours to a researcher. These autistic people identified and described a total of 38 different camouflaging behaviours. The detailed and specific information provided by autistic adults about camouflaging behaviours generated important new insights into the ways in which autistic people adapt to, cope within and influence the neurotypical (non-autistic) social world.

Keywords: autism; camouflaging; masking; social behaviour.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Camouflaging behaviour categories and subcategories.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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