The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Insensitivity to social reputation in autism

Insensitivity to social reputation in autism
Insensitivity to social reputation in autism
People act more prosocially when they know they are watched by others, an everyday observation borne out by studies from behavioral economics, social psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. This effect is thought to be mediated by the incentive to improve one's social reputation, a specific and possibly uniquely human motivation that depends on our ability to represent what other people think of us. Here we tested the hypothesis that social reputation effects are selectively impaired in autism, a developmental disorder characterized in part by impairments in reciprocal social interactions but whose underlying cognitive causes remain elusive. When asked to make real charitable donations in the presence or absence of an observer, matched healthy controls donated significantly more in the observer's presence than absence, replicating prior work. By contrast, people with high-functioning autism were not influenced by the presence of an observer at all in this task. However, both groups performed significantly better on a continuous performance task in the presence of an observer, suggesting intact general social facilitation in autism. The results argue that people with autism lack the ability to take into consideration what others think of them and provide further support for specialized neural systems mediating the effects of social reputation.
0027-8424
17302-17307
Izuma, Keise
67894464-b2eb-4834-9727-c2a870587e5a
Matsumoto, Kenji
df068ed2-7c79-4c79-9e8d-ac73bfcfbeeb
Camerer, Colin F.
c2bc352f-8d06-4a86-ba04-69e0e2730e80
Adolphs, Ralph
95a28d79-bdf7-42d6-b18a-503e85afa601
Izuma, Keise
67894464-b2eb-4834-9727-c2a870587e5a
Matsumoto, Kenji
df068ed2-7c79-4c79-9e8d-ac73bfcfbeeb
Camerer, Colin F.
c2bc352f-8d06-4a86-ba04-69e0e2730e80
Adolphs, Ralph
95a28d79-bdf7-42d6-b18a-503e85afa601

Izuma, Keise, Matsumoto, Kenji, Camerer, Colin F. and Adolphs, Ralph (2011) Insensitivity to social reputation in autism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 (42), 17302-17307. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1107038108).

Record type: Article

Abstract

People act more prosocially when they know they are watched by others, an everyday observation borne out by studies from behavioral economics, social psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. This effect is thought to be mediated by the incentive to improve one's social reputation, a specific and possibly uniquely human motivation that depends on our ability to represent what other people think of us. Here we tested the hypothesis that social reputation effects are selectively impaired in autism, a developmental disorder characterized in part by impairments in reciprocal social interactions but whose underlying cognitive causes remain elusive. When asked to make real charitable donations in the presence or absence of an observer, matched healthy controls donated significantly more in the observer's presence than absence, replicating prior work. By contrast, people with high-functioning autism were not influenced by the presence of an observer at all in this task. However, both groups performed significantly better on a continuous performance task in the presence of an observer, suggesting intact general social facilitation in autism. The results argue that people with autism lack the ability to take into consideration what others think of them and provide further support for specialized neural systems mediating the effects of social reputation.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 12 September 2011
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 October 2011
Published date: 18 October 2011

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 425211
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/425211
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: f2ca3354-0052-4354-8751-7b17da811d6e

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 11 Oct 2018 16:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 22:04

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Keise Izuma
Author: Kenji Matsumoto
Author: Colin F. Camerer
Author: Ralph Adolphs

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×