The CAT-Q

The Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q) is a self-report questionnaire designed to measure social camouflaging—the strategies people may use to hide, compensate for, or adapt autistic traits in social situations.

Many autistic adults, particularly those identified later in life, describe learning ways to navigate social situations that make their autistic traits less visible to other people.

You may appear socially capable while internally working very hard to understand what is expected, monitor your behaviour, or fit in.

People taking the CAT-Q may be wondering:

• Why do social situations feel exhausting even though I seem to manage them well?
• Why do I feel like I am performing around other people?
• Have I learned to hide parts of myself in order to fit in?
• Could masking be affecting how I score on other autism questionnaires?

The CAT-Q can help you explore those questions by looking at three different aspects of camouflaging: Compensation, Masking, and Assimilation.

Common reasons people take the CAT-Q

People often arrive here because:

• You feel like you are performing rather than being yourself in social situations.
• You consciously study or copy other people’s social behaviour.
• Other people think you are socially confident, but interacting requires considerable effort.
• You rehearse conversations or think carefully about how you should behave.
• You suppress behaviours that might make you appear different.
• You relate strongly to autism but have scored lower than expected on other autism questionnaires.
• You are exploring whether masking or camouflaging has been part of your experience.

This version is based on the original CAT-Q questionnaire developed by Hull and colleagues.

Take the CAT-Q

Notes on answering the questions

A few things to keep in mind:

• Think about how you typically behave during social interactions, rather than focusing on one particular situation.
• Try to distinguish between behaviours that feel natural and behaviours you have consciously learned or practised.
• Consider the effort behind your behaviour, not simply how successfully you appear to socialize.
• If your answer feels like “it depends,” choose the response that best represents your experience overall.
• Some camouflaging strategies become so automatic over time that you may not immediately recognize them as masking.
• There are no right or wrong answers. The CAT-Q is intended to describe patterns in your experiences.

What is camouflaging?

Camouflaging refers to strategies people use to manage how their autistic traits appear during social interactions.

Some strategies may be conscious. For example, you might deliberately make eye contact because you know it is expected, rehearse what you are going to say, or copy another person’s facial expressions.

Other strategies can become so practiced that you use them almost automatically.

Camouflaging is not one single behaviour. The CAT-Q measures three related aspects of it:

Compensation

Compensation involves strategies used to compensate for difficulties in social situations.

Examples can include:

• Learning social rules deliberately
• Copying other people’s body language or facial expressions
• Learning how people interact by watching television, movies, or other people
• Developing strategies for navigating conversations

Masking

Masking involves hiding characteristics that might make you appear different from the people around you.

Examples can include:

• Monitoring your facial expressions
• Adjusting your body language
• Forcing or monitoring eye contact
• Trying to appear relaxed or confident when you do not feel that way internally

Assimilation

Assimilation involves strategies used to try to fit in with other people during social situations.

Examples can include:

• Feeling that you are putting on an act
• Forcing yourself to interact socially
• Relying on other people to help you navigate social situations
• Trying to blend into a group even when doing so requires considerable effort

What do my CAT-Q scores mean?

Remember

Your CAT-Q score is only one piece of the picture.

• The CAT-Q measures camouflaging behaviours; it does not measure autism itself.
• A high CAT-Q score does not mean that you are autistic.
• A low CAT-Q score does not mean that you are not autistic.
• Non-autistic people can camouflage too.
• Your pattern across Compensation, Masking, and Assimilation may be as informative as your total score.

The CAT-Q is best understood as a tool for exploring how you navigate social situations, rather than as a test that can determine whether you are autistic.

Understanding your CAT-Q score

The CAT-Q contains 25 statements, each scored from 1–7, giving a possible total score between 25 and 175.

Higher scores indicate greater self-reported use of camouflaging strategies.

A score of approximately 100 or above has sometimes been used as a useful reference point for elevated camouflaging. However, CAT-Q scores should not be treated as a diagnostic cutoff.

Camouflaging occurs in both autistic and non-autistic people, and average scores differ across groups.

Rather than focusing only on whether your score falls above or below a particular number, it can be more helpful to consider:

• How much effort social interaction requires
• Whether you consciously monitor or modify your behaviour
• Whether you feel able to behave naturally around other people
• Whether camouflaging affects your energy or well-being
• How your CAT-Q results fit with your lifelong experiences and other autism questionnaires

Understanding your three CAT-Q scores

Your total CAT-Q score is made up of three subscales.

Compensation

Compensation measures strategies you may use to work around social or communication difficulties.

A higher score may indicate that you rely more heavily on learned strategies to navigate social situations.

Masking

Masking measures strategies used to hide behaviours or characteristics that might make you appear different.

A higher score may indicate greater monitoring or modification of how you present yourself to other people.

Assimilation

Assimilation measures attempts to fit in or blend into social situations.

A higher score may reflect greater effort to participate socially despite feeling uncertain, uncomfortable, or as though you are performing.

These scores are descriptive. They can help you understand how you camouflage rather than simply how much you camouflage overall.

What does the research tell us?

The CAT-Q was developed by Laura Hull and colleagues to measure camouflaging behaviours in autistic and non-autistic adults.

Research has found that autistic people tend, on average, to report more camouflaging than non-autistic people. However, there is considerable variation between individuals, and camouflaging is not unique to autism.

Research has also found differences in camouflaging patterns between genders. In the original CAT-Q research, autistic women and non-binary participants reported particularly high levels of camouflaging.

This is one reason the CAT-Q may be especially useful when exploring experiences of people whose autistic traits have been less visible to others.

Camouflaging and well-being

Camouflaging can sometimes help people navigate environments where their natural ways of communicating or behaving are not understood.

But sustained camouflaging may also require considerable effort.

Research on the CAT-Q has found associations between greater camouflaging and experiences such as:

• Social anxiety
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Lower well-being

These relationships do not mean that camouflaging necessarily causes these experiences. They indicate that greater camouflaging and poorer well-being can occur together.

Your CAT-Q score may therefore be useful not only for thinking about autism, but also for considering how much effort you expend managing yourself around other people.

Limitations of the CAT-Q

The CAT-Q is a useful measure of social camouflaging, but it has important limitations:

• It cannot diagnose autism.
• Camouflaging is not unique to autistic people.
• People may camouflage for many different reasons.
• Some camouflaging behaviours may become so automatic that they are difficult to recognize or report accurately.
• The CAT-Q focuses primarily on social camouflaging and does not capture every way autistic people may suppress, compensate for, or adapt their traits.
• Like all self-report questionnaires, results depend partly on how you interpret the questions and understand your own experiences.

Because of this, CAT-Q results are most useful when considered alongside your broader experiences and, when exploring autism, other measures of autistic traits.

CAT-Q Frequently Asked Questions

Can the CAT-Q diagnose autism?

No. The CAT-Q measures camouflaging behaviours, not whether someone meets the diagnostic criteria for autism.

Autistic people tend to report more camouflaging on average, but non-autistic people can camouflage as well. Your CAT-Q score should therefore be considered alongside your developmental history, lived experiences, other autism questionnaires, and, if desired, professional clinical interpretation.

Can non-autistic people score highly on the CAT-Q?

Yes. Camouflaging is not exclusive to autism.

People may consciously monitor or modify their social behaviour for many reasons. A high CAT-Q score therefore indicates greater reported camouflaging, but it does not establish why you camouflage or whether you are autistic.

Can I be autistic and have a low CAT-Q score?

Yes. Not every autistic person camouflages extensively.

Some autistic people may have environments where they feel relatively free to behave naturally. Others may not use many of the strategies measured by the CAT-Q, or may camouflage in ways the questionnaire does not capture.

A low CAT-Q score does not rule out autism.

Can masking affect my scores on other autism questionnaires?

Potentially.

Some autism questionnaires ask about behaviours that may look different after someone has spent years developing strategies to navigate social situations.

For example, someone may have learned how to make eye contact, participate in conversations, or behave in ways that are socially expected even though doing so requires substantial conscious effort.

This is one reason it can be helpful to consider measures of autistic traits alongside a measure specifically designed to explore camouflaging.

Why didn’t I realize I was masking?

Camouflaging can become habitual.

If you have monitored your behaviour for many years, you may no longer consciously think about every strategy you use. You may simply experience socializing as unusually effortful or exhausting without immediately recognizing why.

Learning about camouflaging sometimes helps people identify the difference between what feels natural to them and what they have learned to do in order to meet social expectations.

Is camouflaging always harmful?

Not necessarily.

Camouflaging can sometimes be useful or protective. It may help someone navigate work, education, relationships, or situations where being visibly different has negative consequences.

The more useful question may be what camouflaging costs you.

If constantly monitoring yourself leaves you exhausted, anxious, disconnected from yourself, or unable to relax around other people, understanding those patterns may be particularly important.

Should I take another autism questionnaire after the CAT-Q?

Often, yes, if you are exploring whether you may be autistic.

The CAT-Q measures camouflaging rather than autism itself. Measures such as the AQ and RAADS-R look at autistic traits from different perspectives.

Considering several questionnaires together can provide more information than relying on a single score.

What should I do if my CAT-Q score is high?

A high CAT-Q score suggests that you report using substantial camouflaging strategies.

You may find it useful to think about when you camouflage, what you are trying to manage or hide, how much effort it requires, and whether it affects your well-being.

If camouflaging is part of a broader lifelong pattern that makes you wonder whether you may be autistic, you may also wish to complete other autism questionnaires or pursue a structured autism screening assessment.

Continue exploring autism

After the CAT-Q, consider taking one of the tests below.

AQ

Measures autistic traits across several areas of experience.

RAADS-R

Explores autistic traits in adulthood while also asking about experiences earlier in life.

Ready for clinical interpretation?

Autism Screening Assessment

Understand how your questionnaires, developmental history, and experiences fit together with guidance from an autistic psychologist.