City Research Online

Abstract

Background: Newspapers frequently portray autism negatively and stereotypically, with such portrayals being particularly prevalent in certain tabloids and right-leaning publications. Negative coverage can harm the well-being of autistic people and hinder their acceptance within society. This study further examined the impact of newspaper coverage by analysing the relationship between readers’ newspaper preferences and trust in different outlets and their attitudes towards autism.

Method: In an online survey, we recruited 277 UK-based, non-autistic adults who provided demographic information, reading frequency data, and trustworthiness ratings for 10 British newspapers. Participants also completed questionnaires on their knowledge about autism, their explicit attitudes, and a task assessing implicit attitudes toward autism. Data were analysed using generalised additive models weighted by overall exposure to newspapers, with explicit and implicit attitudes as outcome variables. A hierarchical partitioning analysis determined the proportion of the variance in explicit and implicit attitudes explained by reading behaviour and other variables.

Results: Our analyses accounted for 60.1% of the variance in explicit (adjusted-R² = 0.60) and 35.2% in implicit attitudes, with reading behaviour variables collectively explaining 6.0% of the variance in explicit and 10.4% in implicit attitudes. Crucially, a preference for reading right-leaning tabloids predicted more negative implicit attitudes. Furthermore, participants with selective trust in right-leaning tabloids tended to have relatively favourable explicit but relatively unfavourable implicit attitudes. A complementary analysis suggested that participants with higher overall trust in newspapers had less accurate knowledge about autism.

Conclusion:
Our findings highlight the role of the quality of newspaper content in influencing readers’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward autism, alongside other factors. Trust in and engagement with content that negatively and stereotypically portrays autism appear to reinforce negative implicit biases, even when explicit attitudes are favourable. Future research should investigate broader media ecosystems and causal pathways underlying attitudinal shifts.

Publication Type:	Other (Preprint)
Publisher Keywords:	autism, newspapers, attitudes, stigma, implicit, explicit
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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