Rather the latter, but I think that the data could provide some answers to the former too. The idea behind the whole thing is that the fact that people with Autism are likely to have lower social skills and to be obsessed with their interests could influence the income they get. The lower social skills would tend to lower their wages since they have less acquaintances than NTs so they are less likely to get the information that there is a vacancy, and some jobs where these particular skills are required are probably not accessible for them. But on the other hand the income of people with Autism could be higher since if you are obsessed with interest that you can use in your job you are likely to do better in that job. There is also the possibility that the lower social skill play no role at all since people with Autism are able to compensate for this disadvantage by choosing appropriate jobs where these skills are not that important. The goal of my thesis is to test whether this is actually true and to what degree. I was honestly curious about that since the effects of Autism on income could work in both directions. Therefore I regret that I probably will not have enough replies to conduct it.
27 Apr 2011, 5:46 pm
