Personal Values, Knowledge, and Attributional Judgments as Predictors of Autism Attitudes and Volunteer Intention

Non-autistic individuals often hold negative attitudes and behavioral intentions toward autistic people. However, existing research is limited by relatively weak theoretical integration and a lack of systematic investigation into the antecedents of implicit attitudes toward autism. Drawing on the value-attitude-behavior model, social identity theory, and attribution theory, this study examines the associations between personal values, autism-related knowledge, and attributions and implicit and explicit attitudes toward autism. Eighty-five non-autistic Japanese university students participated in the study. Bayesian multiple regression analyses treating explicit attitudes as the outcome variable provided strong evidence of a negative association with implicit benevolence values and a positive association with explicit conformity. In the implicit model, higher implicit security values were associated with more negative implicit attitudes toward autism, whereas greater agreement with autism-related knowledge buffered against such negative implicit attitudes. In the Bayesian logistic regression model predicting volunteer intention, explicit stimulation and explicit achievement were positively and negatively associated with volunteer intention, respectively. Findings highlight the importance of personal values in predicting autism stigma, as well as the role of neurodiversity-informed knowledge.Lay AbstractMany non-autistic people hold negative attitudes toward autistic individuals, which can contribute to the social exclusion of autistic individuals. However, little is known about what shapes these attitudes. In this study, we examined how personal values, autism-related knowledge, and attributional judgments about autism are related to both explicit (controlled) and implicit (automatic) attitudes toward autistic people. We found that those who placed a strong emphasis on security were more likely to show negative implicit attitudes toward autism. In contrast, people who agreed with accurate, neurodiversity-informed knowledge about autism exhibited less negative implicit attitudes toward autism. For explicit attitudes, prioritizing the welfare of close others (benevolence) was associated with lower autism acceptance, whereas valuing universalism and conformity was associated with higher autism acceptance. In addition, individuals who valued excitement, novelty, and challenge in life were more willing to volunteer, whereas those who placed greater importance on personal success according to social standards were less willing to do so. Our findings emphasize the importance of personal values in predicting non-autistic individuals' attitudes and behavior toward autistic individuals, as well as the role of neurodiversity-informed knowledge in this regard.