Social Isolation or Autistic Homophily: An Exploration of the Social Networks of Autistic College Students.

= 34). Overall, all the groups reported similar degrees of social satisfaction (e.g. quality of friendships). On average, the two autistic groups had the most autistic friends and the fewest neurotypical friends. The "not-autistic" group had fewer autistic friends but the most neurotypical friends. However, all groups reported close "cross-neurotype" friendships (e.g. "not-autistic" people being close friends with autistic people). We concluded that autistic college students probably like friendships with other autistic or neurodivergent people, though college students build friendships with all neurotypes.These findings contradict stereotypes about autistic people preferring to be isolated. This study shows that autistic college students do build close friendships with others. It is important to note that we focused on autistic college students rather than all autistic people. We do not know if these findings apply to other groups of autistic individuals. We also relied on what people told us. It is possible that what people are reporting about their friends is not the same thing their friends would say.