Deceptive behaviour in autism: A scoping review

Abstract

The ability to deceive is a key milestone in social cognitive development for typically developing individuals. In this scoping review, we systematically searched the literature to summarise research on deceptive behaviour in autism and identify gaps in knowledge. Across the 28 studies identified, three main themes were synthesised, with seven subthemes: (1) Deception ability and prevalence (1a) gameplay deception; (1b) naturalistic deception; (2) Psychological correlates of deception (2a) verbal, intellectual and social ability; (2b) theory of mind (ToM) behaviours; (2c) executive function; and (3) Social learning (3a) training; (3b) social contexts. The findings challenge common stereotypes, showing that autistic individuals can and do engage in deception. However, many do so less frequently and less adeptly than typically developing individuals. Emerging evidence also suggests that autistic individuals (without co-occurring intellectual disability) may use compensatory strategies when engaging in deception, and that more skilled deceptive behaviour may arise later in life. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. Lay abstract The ability to deceive others is an important skill that usually develops in early childhood. In this review, we give an overview of studies that have examined deceptive behaviour in autistic children, adolescents and adults. We separated the study findings into three main categories and seven sub-categories: (1) Deception ability and prevalence (1a) gameplay deception; (1b) naturalistic deception; (2) Psychological processes in deception (2a) verbal, intellectual and social ability; (2b) ability to understand others’ thoughts and beliefs; (2c) cognitive ability; and (3) Social learning (3a) training; (3b) social contexts. Contrary to some stereotypes, we found that autistic people can and do deceive but often find this more difficult than non-autistic people. We also found that autistic people may use different psychological processes than non-autistic people when deceiving and may get better at deception in adulthood.

Police suspect interviews with autistic adults: The impact of truth telling versus deception on testimony

“…We found that autistic mock-suspects displayed similar verbal deception cues (in terms of statement-evidence consistency and investigation-relevant information) to the non-autistic group regardless of whether they were telling the truth or being deceptive. To our knowledge this was the first study in which autistic adults (without co-occurring intellectual disability) actively demonstrated the ability to tell verbal lies (see Bagnall et al, 2022 ). Specifically, the degree to which mock-suspects lied through omitting incriminating actions during the VE task (therefore contradicting the incriminating evidence) was similar regardless of diagnostic group.…”

“…Understanding the verbal behavior of autistic suspects who are actively deceptive is also crucial for effective investigative interviewing practice. While there is a substantial body of research showing that autistic children have difficulty with lying, relatively little is known about deception in autistic adulthood ( Bagnall et al, 2022 ). Over the past few years, there have, however, been high-profile criminal cases in the United Kingdom (UK) in which autistic defendants have deceived others (e.g., Murray, 2020 ; De Simone, 2021 ).…”

A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Deception Detection by Neurodiverse Young Adults

“…Simply saying “I don't like this” might be the full truth, but in this situation it is an unnecessary one that could damage the relationship. A recent scoping review concluded that although autistic people can lie, they do so less adeptly than nonautistic people (Bagnall et al, 2022). This pattern of greater difficulty with expressive deception could be due to autistic people using different strategies to deceive, which are potentially informed by their use of different strategies used to detect deception.…”

“…That is, when two minds meet, there is a disconnect: differences in cognitive styles and life experiences can make it difficult for social partners to empathize with one another and can contribute to misunderstandings and uncertainties in interactions (Milton, 2012). Because deception is an inherently social behavior (Bagnall et al, 2022), the presence of the DEP between autistic and nonautistic communicators (Milton, 2012) may also decrease deception detection. Importantly, given their status as a neurominority and the devaluation of autistic communication styles, the negative effects of the DEP—including being blamed for communication outcomes like being deceived—are likely to disproportionately affect autistic people (DeThorne, 2020).…”

Prevalence of bias against neurodivergence‐related terms in artificial intelligence language models

“…We also test two potential strengths, honesty (Bagnall et al, 2021) and loyalty (Russell et al, 2019), that are often mentioned for autistic individuals and as such we use an autism-focused word set of {"autism," "autistic," "asperger"} versus {"typical," "regular," "average"} for these two tests. Results are depicted in Table 3.…”