AUTISTIC TRAITS, THEORY OF MIND, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR IT PROFESSIONALS' EMOTIONAL LABOR AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jia, Ronnie; Riemenschneider, Cynthia K.; Jia, Heather H.
• 署名单位: University of North Texas System; University of North Texas Denton; Baylor University; Illinois State University
• 刊物名称: MIS QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0276-7783
• DOI: 10.25300/MISQ/2025/19395
• 发表日期: 2026-06
• 页码: 699-730
• 关键词: autism; autistic traits; neurodiversity; Theory of mind; EMOTIONAL LABOR; Well-being; Mental health; empathizing-systemizing theory; Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test; AQ; INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS; HIGH-FUNCTIONING ADULTS; SPECTRUM QUOTIENT AQ; asperger-syndrome; work exhaustion; systematizing quotient; GENERAL-POPULATION; empathy quotient; CHILDREN; turnover

摘要

Departing from the situation-centric approach common in emotional labor research, we adopt a trait-based perspective to examine how autistic traits shape IT professionals' experiences of social demands and mental health. Across three quantitative studies-two with IT professionals and one with college students preparing for IT careers-we found that autistic traits are consistently central to IT identities. IT professionals as a group are likely underdiagnosed and, on average, exhibit elevated autistic traits, which, in turn, can heighten their emotional labor and erode mental well-being. Compared with the general population, IT professionals, on average, report substantially higher levels of anxiety and depression, with prevalence rates more than 2.3 times the norm, underscoring the potential mental health costs of sustained emotional labor. These findings suggest that emotional labor is not merely situational but anchored in dispositional factors that are widespread within the IT profession. Results from the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test further show that theory-of-mind processing is more laborious for IT students than for business management students, thus providing a sociocognitive explanation for many IT professionals' social challenges. Taken together, these findings advance a disposition-centric paradigm that expands the nomological net of emotional labor and calls for a reexamination of long-standing assumptions about IT work, IT worker identities, and the broader discourse on neurodiversity in technical professions. This work challenges scholars and practitioners alike to embrace autistic traits as an integral and foundational element of IT professional identity and to reimagine IT management as managing neurodiversity. health, empathizing-systemizing theory, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, AQ