Another possibility is that these kinds ‘symptoms’ are second order effects which everyone exhibits to some degree, but that autism itself is not. For example

Another possibility is that these kinds ‘symptoms’ are second order effects which everyone exhibits to some degree, but that autism itself is not. For example - here are some possible causes of a person exhibiting social awkwardness: 1. Slow/Deep processing of language 2. Distraction by other stimuli such as bright lights, visual noise. 3. Introversion 4. Lack of experience in the particular social setting. 5. Religious structures agains certain prevailing social behaviors. 6. A headache caused by forgetting to hydrate adequately during exercise. 7. A pressing need to empty one’s bladder. 1 & 2 are often associated with Autism, but 4 could result from 1 & 2 making social situations unrewarding. 6 & 7 could just be rare flukes or they could happen frequently due to ADHD. The point I’m getting at is that Autism (or ADHD) can be conditions with varying degrees of severity and that can be orthogonal to the fact that the symptoms present in a spectrum across the entire population, because each ‘symptom’ has many causes and is fundamentally stochastic.