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Comment by DudeIsJammin | Hacker News Reader

Their hypothesis doesn't really ring true to me. If the "assortative mating" hypothesis were correct it would mean that in the past people with ASD would have been having children with normies, for lack of a better word, and then due to some vague advancement in society are now instead choosing to mate with people who have more similar traits to themselves. Doesn't really make sense to me tbh

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> normies, for lack of a better word

You may be looking for the word “neurotypicals”.

Or, more specifically, "allistic".

Modern society makes it easier for non-normies to find each other.

Growing up, I noticed that most of my groups of friends were groups of people where there was no expectancy of "being normal" (as we grew up, many of us ended up being diagnosed with different disorders, including things like autism).

Most of us lived in different neighbourhoods and went to different schools. Also, many of my friends _had_ no friends in school or their neighbourhoods. We tended to find each other and keep in touch with each other online (or things like SMS), and it's highly unlikely we would have found each other merely 50 years back.

In the past, people like us surely would have ended up relating with normies, mostly due to a lack of an alternative.

>If the "assortative mating" hypothesis were correct it would mean that in the past people with ASD would have been having children with normies, for lack of a better word, and then due to some vague advancement in society are now instead choosing to mate with people who have more similar traits to themselves.

You say "it would mean that X" which makes one expect you'll mention some X that is implied by the hypothesis, but you're you're merely re-stating the assortative mating hypothesis.

I don't think that this is so improbable. The dominance of technology in our world, and women's emancipation means that being "math-minded" is now seen as an attractive trait for men and women alike, both directly and because it leads to higher social status.

If the dating pool was sufficiently small say below dunbar limit (150) then expanded, there would have been very few ASD (1/52) in the population to mate with. As it expanded that would obviously change and allow assortive mating.

Yes, it say so and it explains why in the article.

They explained it, but I guess it just doesn't ring true to me. They said:

"In societies where people do not have freedom to pursue their interests and passions, where meritorious education is not valued, where men and women do not have freedom to choose their careers, and where nonconformity is not tolerated"

I have a hard time seeing how these types of advancements would have such a drastic difference in mating habits.

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