Autism, Sex and Science: Simon Baron-Cohen at TEDxKingsCollegeLondon

Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the Director of the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge University and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of several books such as "Mindblindness", "The Essential Difference", "Prenatal Testosterone in Mind" and "Zero Degrees of Empathy", as well as the BAFTA-nominated DVDs "Mind Reading" and "The Transporters" to help people with autism to learn emotion recognition. He has received awards from the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society for his research contributions which range from the 'theory of mind' hypothesis of autism in 1985 to developing 'red flags' for autism in 2012. Recent awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award from MENSA (2011) and the Kanner--Asperger Medal (2013). He is a trustee of a number of autism charities, including the Autism Research Trust

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[MidnightAhri]

as someone with asperger, i was really getting annoyed by his in his voice GOD DAMNNN

[jofox]

I have autism, I graduated from Cambridge in Natural Sciences and went on to become a software engineer. I am very pattern orientated in everything and, also fitting the description, my father was an engineer.

[vegggiiieee]

I know this video is from before she won, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned Maryam Mirzakhani yet!
I don't why so many people feel offended by this video. He stated facts, he did not reinforce any stereotypes what so ever. Heck, he even said women's science ability is just as men's, they just apply it differently. On AVERAGE, damn it. I think this video is great, and, as a female with autism, I can relate.

[jaynej]

It doesnt affect more boys. They only look for the symptoms of boys, which leaves women undiagnosed. Most women I foun out go thru many other health diagnoses like bipolar depression etc before they realize its ASD.

[seatbelttruck]

There is some question as to whether males are actually more commonly autistic than females... The original study of autism was done strictly with boys, and females display slightly different symptoms than males, which are often less easy to spot. Now, maybe it's truly more common in males, but further research would be interesting, and could be helpful to women and girls who are on the spectrum but fell through the cracks when it came to diagnosis.

I can get the Einstein diagnosis, but how is there enough information on Newton to make that kind of guess?

Anyway, as a female with autism, this is a bit boring since it's pretty much brushing me aside.

[Time_Bender]

This guy must have won a competition in his childhood.

[annmarie]

I just want to say as a woman who's diagnosed herself with Asperger's, I wasn't offended *at all* by his presentation. His points seem quite valid and backed up by thorough research. Males normally & naturally have higher testosterone levels than females, so it makes sense that those with autistic traits would be more likely to show giftedness in STEM & less social aptitude than females on the Autism Spectrum. Female Aspies may be more likely to show giftedness with patterns involving more typically female interests. I think it's both "Nature & Nurture" where they end up succeeding, and being female often adds to their ability as well as stronger need to *act as if* they are neuro-typical, hence the lack of females who get diagnosed and slip through the cracks as I did.

[hannahclarke]

I can understand people in the comments section getting irate about this speech reinforcing stereotypes or omitting women etc. But I think we should refrain from attaching any perceived conclusions to these findings. He is not saying that women aren't mathematically gifted, nor that they should be overlooked. In fact, his personal opinions are omitted altogether. They conducted a study and these are the results. Simple. I think maybe the people who are upset are projecting their own personal struggles onto the data. If higher pre-natal testosterone shows up in the data, don't get mad at the scientist who conducted the study or jump to conclusions regarding how their findings might manifest. The significance of the data might not manifest as you expect. Yours sincerely, an autistic girl :)

[Manny-yj]

I'm not sure why people get so upset about this talk. I've yet to see anyone produce any facts disproving what he's said. It's like people don't understand that something isn't wrong just because they don't like it. :/

[alysfreeman]

Err...new research reveals many undiagnosed women...me 60 yrs old.

[katiestorm]

There are few things that I find more annoying then the stereotype that boys are more likely to be autistic then girls. What I would like to see is data on how many women like my self had to wait until we where between 20 -50 before we finally got diagnosed. As for me that lucky day did come until I was in my 30’s.

[gubourn]

117 dislikes from those who say gender is a social construct

[B_B_]

how he says anything with an "s" is painful to my ears but i do understand what he means by male influence

[mattronwilliams]

I have aspergers however my learning disabilities have prevented me from being successful in a career it kind of sucks

[danieluyanguren]

I'm here because of his cousin Sacha Baron Cohen

[amandagroenhof]

It's such a shame to hear him saying that more boys have autism. Autism spectrum disorder is expressed differently in women than men, as they generally tend to be better social "cameleons" when compared to men. I was only diagnosed at 28 due to being an expert at "blending in", and have struggled all my life with issues that I can now relate to ASD. So having information spread that more boys than girls have autism is a shame, so many girls go through life undiagnosed and struggling and it really requires extra awareness and a different approach, instead of more wrongly interpreted data.

[Neilgs]

Also, let us consider Newton and Einstein.  To whom, retrospectively, would it have benefited if they were "properly diagnosed?" No doubt the stigma attached to the genius of their "disorder" would have had (retrospectively) a tendency to hamper their unfettered genius or eccentricities which led them to brilliantly experiment (i.e. beginning with Einstein as a boy imagining and obsessing with what it would be like to travel on a beam of light, etc.). Why should have Einstein if could, been "redirected" and attempted to be made more "social" as one example.  To reduce everything a single sum integer or false neurotypical conception of more or less "universal" and I dare say fictitious "neurotypical normalcy" may lead to the idea of  addressing "deficiencies" but unwittingly threatens the brilliant diversity of human thought, creativity and expression, as well as the penultimate deficiency in conceiving "neurotypical" (rather more accurately human neurodiversified) under one brushstroke!

[theanarchonazbolinquisition]

I have aspergers and my dad is an engineer, my my what a coincidence!

[samm]

This video has definitely changed my perspective on autism. It surprises me that it has shown such a strong correlation with having a scientific mind. I think that it is very interesting that autistic kids simply see things in a more masculine manner and i find it even more interesting that this is backed by evidence of children who have autism have higher levels of testosterone prenatally. It also was a very interesting theory about Einstein having autism. It is strange to me that a man seen as genius could possibly have had this disorder and had a hard time socializing. I like this video because instead of viewing autistic people as those with a disorder, it describes them more as people who have a high interest in patterns and who can be very talented in the area of science.

[PatriotAr]

If he worked at google, he'd be fired by now.