Math question supposed to reveal if someone is autistic

Post Reply New Topic

"A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?"

A 2022 study found that those who were autistic were more likely to answer the question correctly. But to me it seems that anyone with a normal or average level of logical intelligence will give the correct answear.

Harvard-backed math question that reveals if someone could be autistic

Utter BS. I don't know if there's evidence that autistic people are more likely to be good at math (although based on people I know I'd guess yes), but obviously plenty of nonautistic people are good at math and plenty of autistic people are bad at math. Not to mention that question is fairly simple, it doesn't even say much about a person's math ability. It couldn't reveal anything about autism.

Took me about two minutes and I had to concentrate. I got it though. Maybe most people just reply without considering the question carefully. The obvious response is $1 and $0.10, and the obvious response is wrong. I guess a lot of NTs will breeze by that question with the obvious response.

I am glad you included "supposed to" in the title. One study is one study, and that's all. Scientifically meaningless.

(Will all WP members who didn't solve the problem correctly now please change their profile and declare themselves neurotypical today. If this is not done by midnight they will turn into pumpkins).

Mathematical ability is highly heritable, and there are an abundance of studies on that topic; this is true for both neurotypicals and the AS population.

I think the assumption is that autistics either are more prone to consider things deeply or that we're literally always in that mode.

I came to the obvious conclusion, only to re-read the question and realize my answers were both off by 5¢.




I doubt it's mathematical ability that causes people to get the answer wrong, instead it's reading comprehension. They don't read the question closely enough to understand what they're actually attempting to solve.