The Role of Autism in Shaping Society

This book expands on a new cognitive theory which argues that what we see in autism is an extreme form of a tendency that exists in all people, and further, that this tendency is stronger in males. Given the influence that males have had in shaping (western) society it begs the question - how has this greater tendency in males manifested in the social structures, norms and values that structure our society?

John Lawson is a senior research associate at the Autism Research Centre within the University of Cambridge. He is also a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and the Director of Studies for Social Science at Girton College Cambridge.
For the past seven years he has been working with Simon Baron-Cohen on issues related to the cognitive conceptualization of autism and its extension into the general population.