Reduced Reporting of Social Comparison Emotions and Valuation of Group-Based Morals in Autistic People

Abstract

People's moral values and social emotions play an important role in everyday interactions. We investigated moral values and social emotions in autistic people within in-person (N = 62) and online (N = 443) samples. Autistic adults and neurotypical adults rated their endorsement of “groupbinding” (versus individual-based) moral values (e.g., ingroup loyalty) and responded to vignettes designed to elicit social comparison emotions: envy and schadenfreude. Across studies, autistic participants reported reduced endorsement of binding moral values and reduced levels of social comparison emotions. These findings reveal important associations among social cognition, moral values, and social emotions.