Charloz wrote:
jbw wrote:
B19 wrote:
4 We have no innate ability to engage in social games based on ego, social ambition and hypocrisy
My impression is that this is true for many of us but perhaps not for all of us. I notice on WP we get some posters who seem to be proud to be able to successfully navigate the neurotypical world, and who seem to enjoy their ability to outcompete others.
It would be nice to think that everyone on the autistic spectrum lacks social ambition (=social status envy), but I don't think we'll have to wait long to see a counter-example.
Very few people are entirely free from ego. If any. It may be a personality trait, something that you either have or you do not, and that is a lot stronger in some individuals then it is in others. When it comes to the trait of competitiveness, for me it is largely a "macho" thing where I want to beat others in things, and would feel less of myself if I somehow "lose" and am defeated by someone else in said field.
Some ships have three captains, and some ships have navigators who aren't exactly good at navigating. They still wish to navigate, however, and the captains still want to sail and order, lead and go forward. Social ambition, to some degree, lays within us all. It is much more pronounced in some people then it is in others but that does not mean it is entirely nonexistent in someone on the spectrum.
I think a lot of AS people have quite a lot of social ambition... they are not necessarily skilled in social matters but the drive is definitely there. This is a major reason for a lot of people's depression, feelings of inadequacy, social anxiety or frustration. Take the desire of young autistic people to date and befriend people, and then their sadness when they are unsuccessful in these endeavors. The desire is there, the means less so, and this often causes problems.
Thanks for your perspective. I have observed that a significant subset of younger posters on WP try hard to fit in socially, to climb the social ladder, and to prove to themselves and others that they are not a failure. At the same time I have observed that a substantial subset if not the majority of older posters (say 40 years and older) no longer have much if any desire to fit in, and much less a desire to achieve a position of social dominance.
Autistic hypersensitivity, high levels of emotional empathy (
An emotional response in an individual that stems from and parallels the emotional state of another individual, sometimes called sympathy. A compassionate desire to relieve the suffering of another.) and reduced levels of cognitive empathy (
The ability to understand and predict the behavior of others in terms of attributed mental states, particularly epistemic mental states such as believing, knowing, pretending, and guessing, i.e. the prerequisite for social gaming) can lead people on a social learning trajectory that is radically different from the learning trajectory of people with a more neurotypical brain wiring.
It may well be that some autistics are less "impaired" in terms of cognitive empathy than others.
I am nearly 50 years old and only over the last decade have I realised the extent to which many humans engage in social games/competition. At the same time I have a very high level of emotional empathy for all living creatures. As a child I never understood the point of team sports and never attempted to join any social cliques. Professionally I have on several occasions rejected offers of senior management positions that would have involved wielding social power over others. I now run a decentralised and non-hierarchically organised small consulting business where I only interact with corporate hierarchies from the outside.
This piece of research points into a potentially interesting direction
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 180729.htm:
Anderson and his colleagues discovered two intermingled but distinct populations of neurons in the amygdala, a part of the brain that is involved in innate social behaviors. One population promotes social behaviors, such as mating, fighting, or social grooming, while the other population controls repetitive self-grooming -- an asocial behavior.
Note that (a) repetitive self-grooming and (b) social behaviors, such as mating, fighting, or social grooming seem to be mutually exclusive. This points to a potential biological basis for a gradient in competitive behaviour that may be a dual of the gradient in autistic behaviour.
22 Sep 2014, 3:32 am
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.
