Why Some People See Collapse Earlier Than Others.

Much neurotypical cognition is geared toward maintaining social cohesion, even at the cost of internal dissonance. Dominant cultural narratives like progress, technological salvation, and political optimism persist because they are socially stabilising, even though they are empirically implausible.

Autistic cognition, by contrast, is less influenced by conformity pressures. Yafai et al. (2014) found that autistic children were significantly less likely to conform when asked to give obviously incorrect answers. This is epistemic independence rather than a social deficit.