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Transgressors, victims, and cry babies: is basic moral judgment spared in autism?
Alan M Leslie1, Ron Mallon, Jennifer A DiCorcia
1Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. aleslie@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Social Neuroscience
|July 18, 2008
Summary
Children with autism show intact basic moral judgment despite impaired "theory of mind." This suggests moral reasoning is distinct from social cognitive deficits in autism spectrum disorder.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Human social intelligence involves complex cognitive and affective processes.
- Autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) often show selective impairments in social intelligence.
- Research on ASDs and social intelligence has advanced significantly by studying them together.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate basic moral judgment in children with autism.
- To explore the relationship between theory of mind abilities and moral reasoning.
- To map cognitive comorbidity patterns in neurodevelopmental disorders, including both impairments and spared abilities.
Main Methods:
- Assessed basic moral judgment in children with autism, who were known to have impaired "theory of mind" abilities.
- Introduced a new control task, the "cry baby" task, to study moral reasoning in normal development.
- Compared moral judgments in response to victim distress across typically developing children and children with autism.
Main Results:
- Basic moral judgment was found to be substantially intact in children with autism, even those with severe "theory of mind" deficits.
- Neither typically developing preschoolers nor children with autism morally condemned "unreasonable" or "unjustified" victim distress in the "cry baby" scenarios.
- Judgments of moral transgressions involving victim distress appear to involve moral reasoning rather than automatic reactions to distress.
Conclusions:
- Moral judgment may be a spared cognitive domain in autism, distinct from impaired social cognition like "theory of mind".
- Understanding both deficits and intact abilities is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Future research should consider both impairments and sparings to elucidate the neural and genetic underpinnings of cognitive comorbidity.
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