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‘Autistic’ Traits in Non-Autistic Japanese Populations: Relationships with Personality Traits and Cognitive Ability

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Abstract

We explored the relationships between ‘autistic’ traits as measured by the AQ (Autism-Spectrum Quotient; Baron-Cohen et al., J. Autism Develop. Disord. (2001b) 31 5) and various personality traits or cognitive ability, which usually coincide with autistic symptoms, for general populations. Results showed the AQ was associated with tendencies toward an obsessional personality as defined by the TCI (Temperament and Character Inventory), higher depression and anxiety, and higher frequency of experience of being bullied. These results parallel the patterns in autism and corroborate the validity of the AQ for general populations. Contrary to our prediction, however, there was no relationship between the AQ and cognitive ability, such as theory of mind, executive functioning, and central coherence, suggesting the AQ does not reflect autism-specific cognitive patterns in general populations.

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Notes

  1. The response rate in the subsequent individual investigation (=613/1364=about 45%) seems quite low. But probably it is because of cultural problem specific to Japan, because Japanese people are reportedly less willing to volunteer such an individual investigation (For example, Takuma, Amaha, & Ando (2001) reported that the usual level of involvement in Japanese population was only 15%). So in the response rate in our study was actually higher than those of usual Japanese survey. Moreover, we couldn’t get contact with all the candidates because some of them had changed their e-mail address or telephone number. This is also a reason why the number of participants in second investigation was so small.

  2. GFI (the Goodness of Fit Index) varies from 0 to 1. By convention, GFI should by equal to or greater than .90 to accept the model. AGFI (the Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index) takes into account the degrees of freedom available for testing the model. It also varies from 0 to 1, and should be at least .90. AIC (the Akaike information criterion) is used for comparing models to each other. Smaller value is good, but it does not judge the merit of a single model.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the participants for their kind cooperation. We also thank Nobuhiko Kijima for allowing us to use the Japanese version of the TCI, Simon Baron-Cohen for helpful comments on an earlier version of our paper, and Mariko Hasegawa, Toshiaki Tanaka, Harumi Eguchi, Hitomi Shimazaki, Yuki Takeuchi, and Yoshimi Hosaka for their help with data acquisition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 153-8902, Tokyo, Japan

    Yura Kunihira, Atsushi Senju & Toshikazu Hasegawa

  2. Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Atsushi Senju

  3. Faculty of Human Studies, Musashino University, Tokyo, Japan

    Hitoshi Dairoku

  4. Institute of Disability Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Hitoshi Dairoku

  5. Faculty of Letters, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

    Akio Wakabayashi

  6. Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1, Komaba, Meguro-ku, 153-8902, Tokyo, Japan

    Yura Kunihira

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  1. Yura Kunihira
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Correspondence to Yura Kunihira.

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Kunihira, Y., Senju, A., Dairoku, H. et al. ‘Autistic’ Traits in Non-Autistic Japanese Populations: Relationships with Personality Traits and Cognitive Ability. J Autism Dev Disord 36, 553–566 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0094-1

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