{"id":191,"date":"2021-03-19T19:09:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T19:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/?p=191"},"modified":"2021-04-19T10:55:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T09:55:12","slug":"neurodiversity-a-competitive-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/2021\/03\/19\/neurodiversity-a-competitive-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Neurodiversity: A Competitive Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Source: The Open University. Note: Neurodiversity refers to natural differences in human brain processing, meaning neurodiverse individuals may learn and process information differently to their neurotypical peers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week<\/a>, and I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect upon the vital importance of neurodiversity in the scientific field.<\/p>\n

I am fortunate to be conducting a PhD within an interdisciplinary team of engineers and scientists in the AAPS CDT, whose holistic goal is to achieve a more sustainable transport future. Being at the intersection of environmental and social psychology, my research predominantly explores the links between pro-environmental behaviours, mental health and Autism. This week, with the launch of the GW4 Alliance\u2019s Neurodevelopmental Neurodiversity Network, I was prompted to consider how neurodiversity may facilitate innovation in the automotive field.<\/p>\n

Vast swathes of academic literature has demonstrated that those working in science and engineering disciplines may be particularly neurodiverse. For example, scientists and engineers typically have higher autistic-like traits than those working in non-STEM fields<\/a>. This difference may be due to STEM subjects requiring high levels of \u2018systemising\u2019 behaviours, defined as the use of rule-based systems and need for strong analytical skills. Such systemising tendencies are also a key feature of Autism<\/a>. Individuals with higher autistic-like traits are also typically more proficient in areas such as pattern recognition, detail orientation, short-term memory and logical thinking<\/a>: skills vital for innovation.<\/p>\n

Despite this, heightened autistic traits are rarely framed in this way. Contrastingly, it is estimated that only half of managers would employ a neurodiverse individual<\/a>. This is likely because employers typically focus upon the deficits associated with Autism, such as sensory and social challenges<\/a>; consequently underestimating the competitive advantages of neurodiversity. Indeed, neurodiverse groups are not only more productive than their neurotypical peers, but are also more likely to innovate in their fields<\/a>, due to atypical thinking styles, and lower abidance to social norms.<\/p>\n

Evidently, neurodiversity incubates new perspectives and diversity of thought. Without this, fields like Automotive, requiring fast-paced and pioneering change, will simply fail to thrive. Accordingly, it is clear that automotive employers and academic institutions alike must<\/em> understand and celebrate neurodiversity, to achieve broader societal goals such as creating a sustainable transport future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week, and I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect upon the vital importance of neurodiversity in the scientific field. I am fortunate to be conducting a PhD within an interdisciplinary team of engineers and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,9],"tags":[49,47,60,45,51,18,46],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outreach-and-public-engagement","category-research-updates","tag-2020-cohort","tag-autism","tag-driver-user-behaviour","tag-neurodiversity","tag-psychology","tag-research","tag-stem"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4Pzy-35","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/aaps-cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}