Over the past few weeks, you may have stumbled upon a tweet claiming to be an autism test. The test purports to claim that if you are able to recognize what a piece of minimalist art is representing, you have autism. Say you came across this piece here:

If you were able to piece together that the blocks represent the main cast of South Park, does it mean you have autism?

To put it bluntly, no.

What Is The "Autism Test?"

In memes that are going around Twitter, the "autism test" is just a way of posting minimalist art, with an added "scare" factor to pump up engagement. None of the tests that have been posted in recent weeks are backed by psychologists, and understanding that, say, a bunch of blocks is meant to represent Peter Griffin doesn't mean you have autism.

There is science that suggests pattern recognition may be an indicator of autism, but these memes are more akin to recognizing Loss from four lines than a cause to seek a professional medical opinion.

How Did The "Autism Test" Spread?

Once people understood the context of the joke, several users began getting clever with just how "minimal" they could go while still creating something recognizable. Many of these were fandom-focused, and deducing what they meant is genuinely a neat little twist on fan art posting online.

autism test pic.twitter.com/ioFQ69f0Sp

— nana 🫀 (@gurobite) June 8, 2023

Autism test? Gay test?No, mentally ill test pic.twitter.com/zqGRDACgA0

— bi-curious george♀ (@proserpinah) June 9, 2023

Anyway, should you see one of these in the wild, there's no cause to start questioning whether you may be autistic if you're able to deduce what they mean. Instead, they're a way to have fun with seeing just how many identifying features of a piece of media can be stripped before it becomes completely unrecognizable.

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For more information, check out the Know Your Meme entry for autism pattern recognition rest parodies.