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Going 'Above and Beyond': Are Those High in Autistic Traits Less Pro-social?

Jameel, L; Vyas, K; Bellesi, G; Roberts, V; Channon, S; (2014) Going 'Above and Beyond': Are Those High in Autistic Traits Less Pro-social? J Autism Dev Disord , 44 (8) pp. 1846-1858. 10.1007/s10803-014-2056-3. Green open access

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Abstract

Few studies have explored how the cognitive differences associated with autistic spectrum disorder translate into everyday social behaviour. This study investigated pro-social behaviour in students scoring high and low on the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), using a novel scenario task: 'Above and Beyond'. Each scenario involved an opportunity to behave pro-socially, and thus required balancing the needs of a character against participants' own interests. High AQ participants both generated responses and selected courses of action that were less pro-social than those of the low AQ group. For actions of low pro-social value they gave higher self-satisfaction ratings; conversely, they gave lower self-satisfaction ratings for high pro-social actions. The implications for everyday functioning are considered for those with high autistic traits.

Type: Article
Title: Going 'Above and Beyond': Are Those High in Autistic Traits Less Pro-social?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-014-2056-3
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2056-3
Additional information: �© The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
Keywords: Autistic traits Pro-social behaviour Empathy Perspective-taking Theory of mind
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1422136
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