Human beings, animals and inanimate objects: what do people with autism like?

An experimental strategy based on the 'sorting by preference' approach was used to obtain information about the nature of the autistic syndrome. Twelve participants with autism (mean age 11:9 years), 12 with Down's syndrome (mean age 11:5 years) and 12 typically developing children (mean age 6:2 years) were matched on gender (M:F 9:3) and on verbal mental age. In a forced choice procedure they had to choose between: human beings or inanimate objects (relatedness condition); animals or inanimate objects (animate condition); drawings of a child handling a thing or of the same child in contact with another person (interpersonal relationship condition); pleasant or unpleasant situations without living beings (control condition). The performances of the groups differed only on the relatedness condition and on the interpersonal relationship condition. The results are discussed in the context of the social difficulties experienced by individuals with autism.