Taking the perspective of the other is in the balance between autism tendencies and psychosis proneness by Ahmad Abu-Akel

My research is concerned with understanding the relationship between autism and psychosis and its effect on social functioning. Autism and psychosis-related disorders affect more than 2% of the world population and lead to marked social and cognitive dysfunctions. These disorders can even co-exist in the same individual. However, their combined effect on behaviour and cognition remains unknown. Autism tendencies and psychosis proneness are variably part of our psychological make-up. While these traits may not reach clinical threshold for the majority of people, research suggests that the degree to which these traits are present can have an effect on our social and cognitive abilities. Our research encapsulated in this image shows that the relative dominance of autism or psychosis tendencies has an effect on our ability to correctly appreciate and heed the perspective of others. Specifically, the rate of perspective-taking errors was associated with the relative dominance of each tendency following a U-shape pattern. In contrast, the predisposition to these difficulties is diminished in individuals with similar tendencies to both autism and psychosis. Thus, it appears that the efficiency of our perspective-taking abilities is in the balance between the degree of our autistic tendencies and psychosis proneness.

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