Is it true that Aspergers persons are honest?

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Butterfly
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10 Feb 2021, 2:27 am

What can you tell me about Aspergers other than that we are bad socially and have specific interests?!?

And do aspies lie?



Mountain Goat
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10 Feb 2021, 6:49 am

It is not true that people on the spectrum can't lie. Some lie a lot. Others hardly lie at all. It is all down to the individual and their own character.

Autism can effect the individual in many different ways. It is basically brain con ections that fail to meet up so if one thinks of a computer with a missing wire or two on its circuits, it may function well until it goes to do a specific task. Autism can be a lot like that!

Also when the brain is developing, the brain often compensates for the missing connections by over developing growth in other areas, so this is where one can get a complete genius in one area but someone who lacks in other areas. It can also explain why some people have hyper-sensitivities.

As with brain connections that fail to connect in one person, and other connections that fail to connect with another person may have completely different results, it is why autism is a spectrum and no two autistics are completely alike in their traits and how it effects them, so the stereotype thoughts that all autistic people can't lie just do not make sense in the real world.

I will say one thing though. I personally learned early on in my life that lies just get one into trouble so I learned that though truth can get one into trouble as well, truth can stand up for itself, while lies have no foundation as one has to build lies on top of lies and to be honest, I don't have the intelligence to keep up lies like that!
I soon learned to just tell the truth. It is far less hastle!



timf
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10 Feb 2021, 7:44 am

Deception and duplicity usually require considerable mental processing to administer as seen in the adage;

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Considering the anxiety level often experienced by those with Aspergers in dealing with normal life, it would be less common to find one taking on the extra anxiety of lying. It is not impossible, just more difficult.



CockneyRebel
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10 Feb 2021, 9:58 am

I'm a very honest person to a fault. I think it's more to do with my character than my AS.


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Fnord
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10 Feb 2021, 10:03 am

Having a flat affect (blank expression) and monotone voice may impress others that I am telling the truth; but lack of eye-contact imply to those same people that I am lying.  It's a mixed bag, and depends largely on what I am saying and to whom I am saying it.

However, several of my poker-playing buddies have remarked on my ability to bluff during each hand -- I seem to have no "tells" to indicate whether I am holding a winning or losing hand.


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Mountain Goat
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10 Feb 2021, 10:07 am

Fnord wrote:
Having a flat affect (blank expression) and monotone voice may impress others that I am telling the truth; but lack of eye-contact imply to those same people that I am lying.  It's a mixed bag, and depends largely on what I am saying and to whom I am saying it.

However, several of my poker-playing buddies have remarked on my ability to bluff during each hand -- I seem to have no "tells" to indicate whether I am holding a winning or losing hand.


That is interesting. When I play card games like that where on occasions I have to bluff, my brother can pick it up straight away so my chances of playing the game and winning can be difficult.



r00tb33r
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10 Feb 2021, 10:10 am

All my life I've been an exception to every rule. To get through life I had to break a lot of rules. At this point it's as easy as breathing. Am I dishonest?



Jiheisho
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10 Feb 2021, 12:25 pm

Honest in what way? I don't thing we are emotionally manipulative simply because of social communication deficits. I have a really bad poker face.



Joe90
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10 Feb 2021, 12:56 pm

Luckily I can lie. I find it natural/easy to use white lies to save someone's feelings, keep a secret safe or avoid drama, etc. But when it comes to business/formal matters, I tend to blurt things out that I should have kept quiet.


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HeroOfHyrule
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10 Feb 2021, 1:20 pm

I think that people with autism can lie, it's just sometimes harder for us to detect situations that we may need to lie in.

I can lie just fine, but I don't always get when I really "should" be lying to keep myself or someone else out of trouble.

I'm also bad at keeping to lies because I have an affinity for accuracy, so it's hard for me to give people inaccurate information and not "come clean" about it later.



madbutnotmad
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10 Feb 2021, 1:38 pm

I would say that rather than saying that ASD people either can not tell lies, or are compulsive liars etc.

I would say a better explanation would be that people with ASD follow rigid thinking patterns, which perhaps has been installed in them during their upbringing (perhaps by the parents).

So, if a person with ASD's parents are the honest as the day is long types, and are a great influence on the ASD individual, then the ASD individual is likely to grow up being extremely honest, and rigid in his/her behaviour doing so.

On the other hand, if a person with ASD is brought up from day one by parents who are manipulative sociopath liars, who teach the child who is rigid in terms of thinking that the solution to every situation is to lie, then this behaviour trait is picked up or conditioned into the ASD individual, who may end up following this behaviour rigidly.

To use the common computer metaphor, the ASD individual is like a computer that during their childhood has an operating system installed on them. The operating system determines on how the ASD individual interacts with the universe and is rigid in its nature.

I personally am honest to a fault, which i note, gets me into trouble many times over life.

As Frord mentioned. Unfortunately for us ASD types, due to co-morbid mental health problems that causes us to be perceived nervous, and due to our inability to keep eye contact (or in some, causes us to stare intensely at people in the eye, which i note can also be very unsettling), we are often perceived as automatically guilty based on looks and mannerisms alone.

Our body language to the police for example may say we are nervous, and suspicious. Something about how we present ourselves that is not quiet right, which often equates to GUILTY regardless as to what facts are coming out of our mouths.

In modern terms however, i believe in countries such as the US, these newly discovered facts about ASD may give some grounds to an appeal if prosecuted for any crimes before this date.

In the UK, however, appeals are extremely unlikely, as they are costly and need to be paid for by the defendants pocket. In many cases of people with ASD, we find ourselves in extremely poor financial circumstances, so are very unlikely to ever be given the liberty to seek justice for the wrongful punishments imposed on us by incompetent, uneducated and in some cases, corrupt law enforcement agents and agencies.



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10 Feb 2021, 2:23 pm

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Aspies never lie, but I think there's some truth in the idea that Aspies tend to be more honest than others. We're less likely on the whole to put a social or diplomatic gloss on what we say, more likely to just come straight out with what we think. We often find it difficult to stay quiet when somebody says something we think is incorrect. And we often hate deception more strongly than NTs. But being a spectrum disorder, it follows that not every Aspie is completely truthful at all times.



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10 Feb 2021, 2:47 pm

Well, I try my best to be honest!


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