The Theory That Never Asked examines the history of those explanations, the assumptions inside the research methods, and what changes when autistic people are contributors to the questions, rather than only subjects of a measurement.
Observation has limits
A researcher can observe a response. An educator can describe a behaviour. A test can reveal how someone performs a particular task in a particular setting. Each may provide useful information.
The interpretation is another step.
What does the behaviour mean to the person? What sensory, social, linguistic or emotional conditions influenced it? Is the task measuring what its designers think it measures? How do two people from different backgrounds misunderstand one another?
When an explanation overlooks those questions, the people being described may recognise little of their own experience in the final account.
Asking in both directions
We are interested in the questions autistic people have for non-autistic people, the expectations built into shared environments and the way misunderstanding can occur across a relationship rather than belonging entirely to one person.
That does not require dismissing every result from Theory of Mind research. It requires examining evidence, different definitions, research limitations and the explanations that were not sufficiently tested.
The wider problem
The same issue can arise when experts in any field become more concerned with protecting a familiar framework than investigating the questions that challenge it.
Professional knowledge matters. Accountability for how it is used matters too.
If the people described by a theory disagree with the explanation, what should researchers ask next?