What is the relationship between autism and intelligence?

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On the one hand we're told that great geniuses like bill gates and Albert Einstein were autistic, but on the other hand, so many autistics are mentally ret*d and unsuccessful. Perhaps the most intelligent autistics are too high functioning to get diagnosed? How do we make sense of such conflicting "evidence"?

The vast majority of high functioning autistic / Asperger's people have roughly the same intelligence distribution as the general population.
However, there are very rare cases of "autistic savant syndrome", where some isolated abilities are very highly developed in autistic people.

Autism research was most likely in its infancy when Einstein lived, so it is unlikely that he would have ever gotten diagnosed.

There is no real proof that either of these people are/were autistic. Although they might have autistic traits.



26% of Autistics are considered Low Functioning which is having an IQ under 70-75 So 74% are of average or above average intelligence. So only 1 in 4 are mentally ret*d.



The balance of the 74% have a range of abilities and varying degrees of success. Some will struggle with work, education and making a success of themselves. Some will have success. You are partially right, the most successful (not the most intelligent) will be unlikely to attract a diagnosis, so they won't be included.

Jason.

No correlation really. Both autistics as geniuses & as mentally ret*d are two common myths about ASDs.
The second is easier to understand, since its hard to get IQ levels on someone who cannot/will not communicate with you. The other is because some people on the Spectrum have been exceedinly above average. However, the range is probaly the standard Bell Curve distribution for the general population.
One other factor, the ability to hyper-focus on one thing can create positive results at time. Einstein thought outside the box ( as the cliche' goes) but he was also lucky to have another genius who collaborated with him. This person did all the math, even developing Tensor calculus for the Relativity theories. Albert did not actually do his own math. So two heads really are better than one!

Sincerely,
Matthew

It's not conflicting. Both are true. There are extremely intelligent autistics, and there are intellectually disabled autistics. Autistic people tend toward extremes more than neurotypicals do. In fact, it's possible for one person to have extreme talent in one area, while being extremely disabled in another area. Not just possible, in fact; more common than not. It goes from learning disabilities and splinter skills all the way up to full-blown savant syndrome.

Autistic intelligence just can't be measured on a single scale, much less crammed onto a single arbitrary scale along with NT intelligence. The fact is, we are very diverse, and we can be very good at some things and very bad at other things, often simultaneously in the same person.

Just because autism involves the same general pattern of traits in everyone, doesn't mean that this pattern can't exist in many different colors. People sometimes try to simplify the way they think about it by assuming that everyone with autism is roughly the same--but that's not only an incorrect simplification; it's just plain incorrect. Autistic people are not all the same. Would you expect every NT to have the same height, personality, hair color, running speed, reading ability... etc? No? Well, autistic people vary, too, and even more widely than NTs do.

There is none. This obsession with IQ is stupid.

In the general population, only 5% have IQ's below 75, so it sounds like the autistic bell curve is shifted 15 IQ points to the left. If so the typical autistic has an IQ of 85.

Now keep in mind these are only diagnosed autistics; it's possible that there's a huge population of high IQ autistics who are so successful they never get diagnosed.

On the other hand there's just as likely to be a huge population of low IQ autistics who come from such poor uneducated families that they too never get diagnosed.

These 2 groups might cancel each other out leaving IQ 85 as the true autistic IQ after all .

If so how do we explain all those autistic geniuses? Well, the average autistic IQ might be low, but the standard deviation (variability) might be high, so while the autistic bell curve is to the left of the neurotypical curve, it's tails extend much further to both the left and right extremes.

Wrong again. Just because there is more in the lower bracket doesn't mean there is a shift to the left. There is also an abnormally high rate on the other side.

I think its because we have an obsession to gather information.

IQ has nothing to do with data or fact memorization. Zip. I have a super high IQ and never got too interested in gathering info. I have little focus so you know what that IQ got me? Not much other than a pretty good mechanism with which I could compensate for other deficits.

I never said anything about IQ is one way to measure intelligence but its not the only way. when you are a walking encyclopedia people assume your smart.

I think they have a higher general/specific Intelligence because they spend more time thinking in isolation. Hence the equivalent social intelligence also being very low, as it is not being developed.

How is it conflicting?
Sometimes neurotypicals have higher IQs than other neurotypicals.
Sometimes autistics have higher IQs than other autistics.
Sometimes people with only one leg...
I could go on forever.

Some of those diagnosed as having intellectual disabilities have gone on to get doctorates, while some of those categorized as gifted or genius end up unable to do much at all.

IQ scores not a good measure of function in autism (link)

Check out that thread for a discussion as to why IQ does not mitigate autism. I have tested with a genius IQ but I am not self-sufficient, had a terrible academic record, and I am definitely not "too high functioning to get diagnosed."