Summary: A new study from City St George’s, University of London finds that the newspapers people read are a strong predictor of their unconscious attitudes toward autism. Even after accounting for age, education, political views and personal experience, readers of right-leaning tabloid outlets showed stronger negative automatic biases. The research also found that people who place high trust in newspapers without critical scrutiny tend to have less accurate knowledge about autism. These results highlight how media exposure shapes both subtle bias and public understanding, with consequences for neurodiversity acceptance and mental wellbeing.
The study demonstrates that routine media consumption is linked to both implicit associations and explicit knowledge about autism. By combining survey measures with an implicit word-association task and a novel analytical approach, the research reveals how selective engagement with particular newspapers can be associated with less favourable unconscious attitudes, even when explicit responses appear positive.
Key Facts
- Media influence: About one in ten of the differences in unconscious autism bias was associated with newspaper reading habits.
- Bias pattern: Regular readers of right-leaning tabloids were more likely to exhibit negative automatic biases toward autistic people.
- Trust and knowledge: Higher uncritical trust in newspapers correlated with lower accuracy in autism knowledge.
Source: City St George’s, University of London
Study overview
Led by Dr Themis Karaminis in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at City St George’s, the research builds on earlier content analyses showing that press coverage of autism frequently relies on stereotypes and negative language. That earlier work examined some 24,000 British newspaper articles and found that right-leaning and tabloid outlets tended to mention autism less often and to use more stereotyped portrayals than many left-leaning broadsheets.
To examine how individual reading preferences relate to public attitudes, the team surveyed 277 UK-based non-autistic adults. Participants reported how often they read ten major British newspapers — Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Sun, and The Times — and rated how much they trusted each title.
Participants also completed questionnaires measuring autism-related knowledge and explicit attitudes, and performed a word-based implicit association task designed to reveal automatic, less conscious biases and associations. The survey collected demographic information including age, gender, education, political leanings and contact with autistic people. Researchers then applied a generalized additive modelling approach and hierarchical partitioning to isolate the influence of media preferences from other contributing factors.
Findings
The analysis identified clear links between reading habits and attitudes, particularly in the implicit measures. Newspaper-related variables accounted for roughly 10% of the variance in implicit attitudes and about 4.5% in explicit attitudes. Selective engagement with right-leaning tabloids was associated with more negative automatic attitudes toward autism.
- Frequent readers of right-leaning tabloids were more likely to display negative automatic biases, mirroring the more negative and infrequent coverage of autism in those outlets.
- Some people who trusted these outlets reported relatively positive explicit attitudes in questionnaires, indicating a mismatch between consciously held beliefs and unconscious associations shaped by repeated exposure.
- Overall, higher trust in newspapers correlated with less accurate knowledge about autism, suggesting that unquestioning confidence in media sources may reduce the likelihood that readers verify or cross-check information.
Dr Karaminis commented that this study represents an early step toward untangling the many social and informational influences that shape public views of autism. The findings underline the need for stronger media literacy and more accurate, less sensationalised reporting, especially as public awareness of neurodiversity grows while misleading claims—such as unfounded links between autism and common medicines—continue to circulate.
The research also contributed evidence submitted to the House of Lords Committee on the Autism Act 2009 and was included in the Committee’s report, Time to Deliver: The Autism Act 2009 and the New Autism Strategy, published in November 2025.
Key Questions Answered:
A: Reading patterns—especially frequent engagement with right-leaning tabloids—predict stronger negative unconscious biases toward autism.
A: People can consciously reject stereotypes while still retaining automatic biases shaped by repeated media exposure and associative learning.
A: Higher, uncritical trust in newspapers was linked to less accurate autism knowledge, implying reduced skepticism toward biased or incomplete reporting.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- The journal paper was reviewed in full by the editorial team.
- Additional context and clarifications were added by staff to aid reader understanding.
About this autism research news
Author: George Wigmore
Source: City St George’s, University of London
Contact: George Wigmore – City St George’s, University of London
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access. “The relationship between newspaper reading preferences and attitudes towards autism” by Themis Karaminis et al. Autism. DOI: 10.1177/13623613251394523
Abstract
The relationship between newspaper reading preferences and attitudes towards autism
Certain newspapers—particularly some tabloid and right-leaning titles—often present autistic people using negative stereotypes. This study investigated how individual newspaper reading preferences relate to public attitudes toward autism.
A sample of 277 UK-based non-autistic adults completed an online survey reporting demographics, reading habits (print and online) and trustworthiness ratings for ten major British newspapers. Participants completed measures of autism knowledge, explicit attitudes, and an implicit bias task. Researchers used generalized additive models weighted by newspaper exposure and hierarchical partitioning to estimate the variance explained by reading preferences and other factors.
Newspaper-related factors explained approximately 4.5% of the variance in explicit attitudes and 10.7% in implicit attitudes. Selective engagement with right-leaning tabloids was associated with more negative implicit attitudes. Selective trust in these outlets tended to predict relatively favourable explicit but relatively negative implicit attitudes. Overall trust in newspapers was also linked to less accurate autism knowledge.
These results suggest that consuming media sources that portray autism more negatively is associated with more negative implicit biases, even when explicit attitudes may appear favourable. Future research should investigate causal mechanisms and the broader influence of media ecosystems on public perceptions of autism.