Egocentric biases and atypical generosity in autistic individuals

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) often experience difficulty and confusion in acknowledging others' perspectives and arguably exhibit egocentricity. However, whether this egocentricity necessarily results in selfish behavior during social situations remains a matter of debate. To study this relationship, we used computerized visuospatial perspective‐taking task (VPT) and social‐discounting task (SDT), derived from cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, and examined egocentric and other‐oriented judgments in participants with ASCs (mean age 29.0 ± 4.2 years) and a group of matched typically developing (TD) controls (30.8 ± 8.5). The response time in VPT showed altered perspective‐taking in the ASCs group compared with the TD group that involved in enhanced self‐other intrusion and condition‐insensitive response. Regardless of self/other perspective judgments, responses were relatively slower and consistent in duration in the ASCs group compared with the TD group. Social discounting was attenuated rather than steep discounting in the ASCs group. Their discounting was comparatively more consistent, irrespective of the task condition (i.e., self‐other closeness‐level). In effect, ASCs group exhibited more generous decisions than the TD group in this task. Finally, those with more egocentric perspective intrusion in VPT paradoxically showed more generous behaviors in SDT in the ASCs group. Our findings suggest that having ASCs does not always exhibit selfish behavior during interpersonal communication. Reduced flexibility in distinguishing self/other perspective and shifting decision‐rules might account for this unique relationship between egocentricity and apparently generous behaviors. These results extend the recent suggestion that more careful attention should be paid to the idea of egocentricity in individuals with ASCs. Autism Res 2019. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Lay SummaryWe aimed to examine whether seeing the world from another person's point of view and being generous toward other people are related in autistic and nonautistic people. We used a visual perspective‐taking task and a social task in which individuals made decisions about how to divide a sum of money with others. Our results suggest that being autistic does not always make someone bad at seeing the world from another's viewpoint, and that autistic people may make fairer social decisions toward unfamiliar people because of lower bias.

Improving visual perspective-taking performance in children with autism spectrum conditions: Effects of embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies

“…As both ToM and VPT-2 demand simultaneous representations of two differing viewpoints (mental states in ToM and visual states in VPT-2), ASC children, characterized by ToM deficits, also have difficulty in VPT-2 tasks, suggesting that an abnormality in decoupling representations from reality and inhibiting their own perspective could account for ASC children’s poor VPT-2 performance in the present study and the well-documented ToM deficits in previous studies (Tin et al, 2018; White et al, 2009). However, it is also worth noting that lower performance and higher egocentric bias on VPT and ToM do not mean that ASC individuals are totally self-centered or selfish, for some studies have suggested that ASC children could afford comfort to others and even showed more generosity than NT controls (Dunfield et al, 2019; Tei et al, 2019).…”

“…In contrast, level-2 visual perspective-taking (VPT-2), acquired around 5 years of age, takes a step further to enable children to determine how the same object could appear differently from another person’s point of view (Flavell, 1977; Gzesh & Surber, 1985). The majority of studies suggest that while VPT-1 is intact in people with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs; Tei et al, 2019; Warreyn et al, 2005), the VPT-2 is impaired or delayed in this group (Hamilton et al, 2009; Pearson et al, 2013; Yirmiya et al, 1994). And the difficulty in perspective-taking may place one at a social disadvantage, struggling to align with other people’s perspectives and recognize their feelings, intentions, or beliefs (Hamilton et al, 2009; Wallace et al, 2011).…”

Role of the right temporoparietal junction in intergroup bias in trust decisions

“…Thus, the ability to distinguish the behaviors of in‐group and out‐group members is considered to have developed through evolution (Balliet et al, ; Baumgartner, Schiller, Rieskamp, et al, ). Patients with various psychiatric disorders, such as ASD and schizophrenia, have a reduced capacity to read and adapt to prevalent group norms and practices and often fail to trust and cooperate even with individuals who are close to them (De Dreu & Kret, ; Fujino, Takahashi, et al, ; King‐Casas et al, ; Tei, Fujino, et al, ). Therefore, these patients have difficulty forming and maintaining social bonds and suffer from social exclusion and isolation (De Dreu & Kret, ).…”

“…Conversely, impairments in such group psychology undermine social inclusion and fitting in (Balliet et al, ; De Dreu & Kret, ). Individuals who chronically suffer from these impairments, including those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder, risk a lack of social support and have a reduced well‐being (De Dreu & Kret, ; King‐Casas et al, ; Tei et al, ). Thus, an improved understanding of intergroup trust bias can provide significant insights into social cognitive functioning and its impairments in psychiatric disorders.…”

Emotional ego- and altercentric biases in high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence

“…In spite of the abundance of studies on increased cognitive biases in ASD, using e.g. false belief or social discounting tasks (Begeer et al, 2012;Frith & de Vignemont, 2005 for a review; Nijhof et al, 2020;Tei et al, 2019), biases in the emotional domain seem to have gotten less attention over the years. However, affective social competences are often a major problem for individuals with ASD, and there is still a wide debate which components of social cognition are indeed impaired in this disorder (Deschrijver & Palmer, 2020 for a recent review; Dziobek et al, 2008;Mazza et al, 2014).…”