A new study from City St George's, University of London has found that people's newspaper reading habits are a reliable predictor of their attitudes towards autism, even when many other factors such as age, education, political views and personal experiences are taken into account.
The research, published in the journal Autism, reveals that around 10% of the differences in automatic, unconscious bias were linked to what newspapers people read. People who read right-leaning tabloid papers more often showed stronger negative automatic biases towards autism.
By using an innovative analytical approach, the study introduces a new way to understand how media and audiences can shape one another, and it underlines the importance of media literacy, as participants who trusted newspapers uncritically tended to have less accurate knowledge about autism.
What the study did
The study builds on earlier work by the group – led by Dr Themis Karaminis, lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at City St George's – which analysed 24,000 British newspaper pieces and showed that autistic people are portrayed in newspapers predominantly using stereotypes and negative language. This was especially true in some right-leaning and tabloid newspapers, which also mentioned autism less often than left-leaning broadsheets.
To find out more about how newspaper preference influenced autism attitudes, the authors surveyed 277 non-autistic adults based in the UK. Participants reported how often they read ten major British newspapers – Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Sun, and The Times – and how much they trusted each one.
Participants also completed questionnaires assessing their knowledge about autism and their explicit attitudes towards autistic people. Finally, they took part in a word-based task designed to reveal automatic and less conscious biases and associations about autism. Information on age, gender, education, political leanings and contact with autistic people was also provided. The authors analysed the data using a novel analytical approach that enabled them to separate out the influence of media from these other factors.
What you read and trust matters
The study found clear links between reading habits and people's attitudes, particularly their automatic and less conscious biases assessed with the word-based task. Around 10% of the differences in these biases were linked to participants' newspaper reading habits.
- People who frequently read right-leaning tabloids were more likely to show negative automatic biases towards autism, which is consistent with the more negative coverage of autism in this part of the press.
- But some of the readers who trusted these same outlets reported relatively positive explicit attitudes about autism in the questionnaires. This mismatch could suggest that even when people consciously reject stereotypes, they might hold negative biases related to their reading preferences.
- Finally, people who expressed higher trust in newspapers tended to have less accurate knowledge about autism, suggesting they may be less inclined to question or cross-check the information they encounter.
Dr Karaminis, senior author of the study, said:
"The new study is an early step in teasing apart the many factors that relate to how the public thinks about autism, and in understanding how media fit within a wider landscape of social influences that hinder acceptance of autistic people and affect their mental wellbeing.
"The findings highlight that newspaper reading habits are a robust predictor of public attitudes—at least in the context of autism—even when many other factors are taken into account. This is significant in an era where public awareness about neurodiversity is growing, yet misleading or sensationalised stories, such as unfounded claims linking autism to common medicines, continue to make headlines."
The findings also informed written evidence submitted to the House of Lords Committee on the Autism Act 2009 and included in the Committee's final report , Time to Deliver: The Autism Act 2009 and the New Autism Strategy, published in November 2025.
