Morton Ann Gernsbacher www.gernsbacherlab.org [Image: M.Remi Yergeau, a white person   with shoulder-length blond hair, holding a sign that has a puzzle piece image with a red slash through it and the wording, “People not puzzles.”]  Why was the study conducted? They’re everywhere. On the lapels of NCAA basketball coaches during the Final Four. On a FOX reporter’s bowtie during the World Series. On bumper stickers, backpacks, bracelets, beer koozies, tote bags, and the background of a prime-time soap opera. They are puzzle pieces intended to represent autism (and autistic people). Symbolizing autism with a puzzle piece began with the UK’s National Autistic Society: “… designed by a [non-autistic] parent … It first appeared on our stationary and then on our newsletter in April 1963. Our Society was the first autistic society in the world, and our puzzle piece has … been adopted by all the autistic societies which have followed.”…