Morality in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review

Abstract

Moral reasoning and decision making help guide behavior and facilitate interpersonal relationships. Accounts of morality that position commonsense psychology as the foundation of moral development, (i.e., rationalist theories) have dominated research in morality in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Given the well-documented differences in commonsense psychology among autistic individuals, researchers have investigated whether the development and execution of moral judgement and reasoning differs in this population compared with neurotypical individuals. In light of the diverse findings of investigations of moral development and reasoning in ASD, a summation and critical evaluation of the literature could help make sense of what is known about this important social-cognitive skill in ASD. To that end, we conducted a systematic review of the literature investigating moral decision making among autistic children and adults. Our search identified 29 studies. In this review, we synthesize the research in the area and provide suggestions for future research. Such research could include the application of an alternative theoretical framework to studying morality in autism spectrum disorder that does not assume a deficits-based perspective.

Moral foundations theory in autism spectrum disorder: A qualitative investigation

“…Takeda et al, 2007; Zalla et al, 2011). Researchers have investigated whether the development and execution of moral judgement and reasoning differs in this population compared with neurotypical individuals (for a review, see Dempsey et al, 2019).…”

“…Relying on traditional definitions of empathy and rationalist theories of morality would suggest delayed or atypical moral development among autistic individuals. However, a recent systematic review of moral psychology in autism (Dempsey et al, 2019) suggested that only minor differences in moral psychology exist between autistic and neurotypical individuals. In particular, moral judgement, that is, determining whether transgressors were morally right or wrong in their actions, was shown to be generally similar between autistic and neurotypical individuals (e.g.…”

“…As such, moral intuitionism relies more heavily on emotional responding than discursive reasoning and perspective taking than do rationalist accounts of moral psychology. The role of emotion in autistic moral judgement is not clear (Dempsey et al, 2019), especially given high rates of co-occurring alexithymia, that is, reduced ability to recognize one’s own emotions, among autistic individuals (Hill et al, 2004).…”

Right Temporoparietal Junction Underlies Avoidance of Moral Transgression in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…These findings indicate that the ability to infer and base moral judgments on intentionality may be still present in ASD individuals, and potentially explains why we did not observe a between-group difference of rTPJ in representing social reputation in our task. It has also been proposed that the method of inferring intentionality differs between autistic and neurotypical participants (Dempsey et al, 2019). Here, a reduced rTPJ representation similarity in ASD, unique to the moral context, explains that patients excessively consider the negative consequences of an immoral action.…”

Moral Foundations Theory Among Autistic and Neurotypical Children

“…The ability to consider intentions when judging moral culpability has been a key focus in research on morality in autism, wherein subtle differences have often been construed as deficits (for review see . However, such research has not shown robust connections between commonsense psychology and moral judgments among autistic individuals (for review see Dempsey et al, 2019). As such, autistic individuals appear to use heuristics for making moral judgments that rely less heavily on commonsense psychology than seen in neurotypical individuals, presenting a challenge to the single developmental pathway to moral maturity posited by rationalist accounts.…”