Sharing resources is fundamental for human cooperation and survival. People tend to share resources more with individuals they feel close to compared to those who are more socially distant. This decline in generosity at increasing social distance is called social discounting and is influenced by both social traits and abilities, such as empathy, but also by non-social psychological factors, such as decision-making biases. People who receive a diagnosis of autism show differences in communication and social interaction as well as displaying differences in non-social domains, such as more restricted and repetitive behaviours. We investigated social discounting in autism and found that autistic adults were more generous than neurotypical participants, especially to socially distant others, such as strangers. Greater autism-related differences in communication, social skills, and attention switching correlated with increased generosity suggesting that both social and non-social aspects of autism contributed to these effects. Additionally, we extend previous work showing that autistic individuals are less susceptible to framing effects – whether monetary decisions are framed as potential losses or gains – supporting the view of ‘enhanced rationality’ in autism. Our results show that the differences seen in autism, as well as posing certain challenges, can also have prosocial consequences.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.