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Newspaper choices found to affect attitudes to autism
Age, education, politics and experience have less impact
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By Peter Clark (Senior Editor, Autism Info Center) Friday 19th December 2025 |
A new study from City St George's, University of London, establishes a robust link between newspaper reading habits and public attitudes towards autism.
Published in the journal Autism, the research surveyed 277 non-autistic adults, analysing their consumption of 10 major British newspapers against their explicit views and unconscious biases.
The study controlled for factors such as age, education, and politics, confirming that media consumption is a unique predictor of attitude.
The researchers found that newspaper choice accounts for approximately 10 per cent of the difference in automatic, unconscious bias against autistic people.
Specifically, people who frequently read right-leaning tabloids demonstrated stronger negative automatic biases.
This aligns with previous research showing these publications often use stereotypical and negative language when portraying autism.
Interestingly, the study revealed a distinct mismatch: some readers of right-leaning tabloids reported positive conscious attitudes towards autism while simultaneously holding negative unconscious biases.
Furthermore, the study found that people who placed high trust in newspapers generally possessed less accurate knowledge about autism, suggesting that uncritical consumption of media hinders understanding.
These findings were significant enough to be submitted as evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the Autism Act 2009.
Source: Medical Xpress (UK)
https://medicalxpress.com/news/
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