Skipping out on neurodivergent talent is a huge mistake because they’re often the only ones who can see the 'groupthink' that ruins big companies.
Companies often prioritize 'culture fit' in hiring, but this research suggests that 'fitting in' is actually a proxy for the cognitive biases that lead to bad decision-making. Neurodivergent thinkers act as a natural defense against these systemic errors, and their exclusion creates a measurable 'Cognitive Tax' on national GDP.
<p>The Cognitive Tax: How Systematic Exclusion of Neurodivergent Talent Drives Organisational Dysfunction and Macroeconomic Underperformance</p>
SSRN · 6315738
This paper argues that the systematic exclusion of neurodivergent individuals from organisations-through hiring systems, cultural fit assessments, and promotion structures optimised for neurotypical conformity-constitutes a measurable macroeconomic cost. Drawing on organisational theory, behavioural economics, and cognitive diversity research, we demonstrate that the System 1 cognitive biases which drive most documented organisational dysfunction are precisely the biases that neurodivergent cogn