Using simple economic games to assess social orienting and prosocial behavior in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Adrian Hase ； Melanie Haynes ；Gregor Hasler

Deficits in socio-emotional reciprocity, in prosocial behavior and in developing social relationships are diagnostic criteria of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), usually assessed by self-report or observation. Simple social experiments developed by behavioral economists allow for quantification of ASD-related social behavior. In this study, we used such experiments to compare social-economic decision-making between ASD adolescents and neurotypical controls. Precisely, we analyzed social orienting and prosocial behavior in 17 adolescents with ASD (Asperger syndrome) and 24 matched neurotypical adolescents. We used a twocondition distribution game (possibility of punishment by fellow player versus no such possibility) and an impunity game to examine social orienting (distribution game) and prosocial behavior (both games). Participants with ASD exhibited less social orienting in the distribution game (p = 0.03, d = 0.61). In addition, there was a trend for ASD participants to behave in a more prosocial way than neurotypical participants in the impunity game (p = 0.08, d = 0.60), which was not the case in the no-punishment condition of the distribution game (p = 0.35, r = 0.17). These results demonstrate the potential of simple economic games to capture reduced social orienting in ASD. The unexpected finding of more prosocial behavior in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder than in neurotypical controls adds to the complexity of previously published results. We recommend metaanalytic efforts to determine average effect sizes across studies and elucidate the conditions for prosocial behavior in ASD to occur.

社会情感互惠、亲社会行为和发展社会关系方面的缺陷是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的诊断标准，通常通过自我报告或观察进行评估。行为经济学家开发的简单社会实验可以量化与 ASD 相关的社会行为。在本研究中，我们利用此类实验来比较 ASD 青少年和神经正常对照组之间的社会经济决策。确切地说，我们分析了 17 名患有 ASD（阿斯伯格综合症）的青少年和 24 名匹配的神经典型青少年的社会定向和亲社会行为。我们使用了一种双条件分配游戏（可能受到同伴惩罚与不可能受到惩罚）和一种有罪不罚游戏来研究社会定向（分配游戏）和亲社会行为（两种游戏）。患有 ASD 的参与者在分配游戏中表现出较低的社会导向性（p = 0.03，d = 0.61）。此外，与神经畸形参与者相比，ASD 参与者在有罪不罚游戏中的亲社会行为呈上升趋势（p = 0.08，d = 0.60），而在分配游戏的无惩罚条件下，情况并非如此（p = 0.35，r = 0.17）。这些结果表明，简单的经济游戏有可能捕捉到 ASD 社会定向力下降的情况。与神经畸形对照组相比，自闭症谱系障碍青少年的亲社会行为更多，这一意外发现增加了之前公布结果的复杂性。我们建议进行荟萃分析，以确定各项研究的平均效应大小，并阐明自闭症谱系障碍青少年亲社会行为发生的条件。