Studies of autistic traits in the general population are not studies of autism.
Noah J SassonKristen Bottema-BeutelPublished in: Autism : the international journal of research and practice (2021)
Studies of autistic traits in the general population are becoming increasingly prevalent. In this letter to the editor, we caution researchers against framing and interpreting studies of autistic traits in the general population as extending to autism and implore them to be clear about when their study sample does and does not include autistic participants.