Hi All
I suppose it is very much a stereotype - the gullibilty thing that all those with any autistic traits supposed to have.
Everyones innocence is encouraged at times -from Father Christmas to the tooth fairy. (I still believe in Father Christmas, but more as a concept, a personalisation of the Christmas spirit).
As one gets older, we learn that these are true. But there is some sort of gullibilty gene present in everyone (not just those with ASD). Politicians play on it and so do advertising agencies, con artists and magicians.
But just how gullible are we? I am much more of a sceptic for when I am told things. This is not to say I am not taken in at times. So if there is some sort of 'index of gullibilty' from (say) 0 to 10, where those on zero are not taken in by anything (but therefore don't even believe things that are true) to Ten, where everything anyone says to you you believe true, I suppose I come somewhere around the 3 to 4 mark on that scale, not easily taken in but sometimes I am much to my embarrassment. (Five would be a 'normal' amount of gullibility, whatever that is!)
There are also things that we see and try to make sense of them. Magic Tricks are often very simple and it is often better not to know how they are done as when you find out you feel so sillly. Another example I will give an experience I had. A long time ago (over 30 years) at Haltwhistle station I saw a diesel locomotive which was painted white but had a blue light on the top and the word 'Police' written on the side. It looked just like a railway equivalent of a police car. My mind worked overtime to come to some sort of logical conclusion. Was it some way of taking large numbers of police officers from one part of the country to another I mused, where they might be needed for riot duty, for example. (This was the time of a lot of riots, demonstrations and picketing). Lacking a more logical explanation, this is the conclusion I came to.
However, the real explanation was far more mundane. It was to be used in a British Rail advertisement to say that the police would not pull you over for motoring offences if you took the train. But the lack of information means meant my life worked overtime and came to a bizarre conclusion.
And I wonder if this is the reason a lot of those on the ASD get the reputation of being gullible and innocent. A narrow range of interests or not being that interested in fashions and trends means some information passes us by so we cannot make sense of them and either come to our own wrong conclusion or are led by others as a leg pulling exercise or worse. As we get older due to life's experiences we learn more and are not taken in so much about things of the old order but new processes and things that come along we can be more naiive and gullible and not understand current parlance and terminology. The old joke about someone callng a computer helpline and being asked by the helpline if they would boot the computer asks how hard they should kick it (apocryphal story I think!)
I have often found that when I say something light heartedly to a NT, it is often believed when to me it is obviously not right. And the other side of the coin is that if I say something that is true, I am often not believed. Such is life!
So throwing it open to everyone, what is your opinion? What things have you been gullible over and has it caused laughter at your expense?
