Podcasts Science Social Sciences The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria Does TikTok Provide Accurate Information about Autism? Session 237 with Elisabeth Sheridan and Giacomo Vivanti

Does TikTok Provide Accurate Information about Autism? Session 237 with Elisabeth Sheridan and Giacomo Vivanti

Published: Sept. 5, 2023, 4:05 p.m.

While I don't personally use TikTok, I am aware of the considerable influence it has across a range of topics. As many listeners can imagine, Autism is one of those topics that generates unfathomable amounts of content on the platform.\xa0

Unlike other forms of medical and scientific dissemination, there are really no barriers to saying whatever one wants, not only on TikTok, but on any other internet-based media platforms, podcasts included of course. And as you might imagine, this brings with it lots of variability in terms of information accuracy.

Today's guests, Drs. Elisabeth Sheridan and Giacomo Vivanti, along with their colleagues Diego Aragon-Guevara and Grace Castle, took up the challenge of analyzing the accuracy of Autism-related content on TikTok. They published their results in a recent issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in a paper titled:\xa0The Reach and Accuracy of Information on Autism on TikTok.\xa0

In this interview, we discuss the audience scope on TikTok - spoiler alert: it's massive, why they decided to undertake this study, how they categorized the veracity of the TikTok videos they reviewed, what type of content creators had more and less accurate videos, what were some commonalities to the inaccurate videos they surveyed, and lots more. We also spent some time talking about the reaction to this paper, which has been considerable.\xa0

Here are the links:

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This podcast is brought to you by:

  • The Michigan Autism Conference, which is taking place on October 11-13 in Kalamazoo, and online as well. We\u2019ll hear more about this event later on in the show, but if you\u2019re impatient like me, to go\xa0michiganautismconference.org, and use the code MAC10 to save $10 at checkout.
  • The Stone Soup Conference, which is taking place on October 20th. This is an amazing event, benefitting a great cause, all for a very reasonable price. Use code PODCAST to save on your registration as well.
  • Behavior University.\xa0Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at\xa0behavioruniversity.com/observations.