Group Favoritism in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

People tend to evaluate more positively the members of their group. This study examined this behavior in autistic children to better understand the strategies they use when making decisions in a group context. We included129 participants who watched four videos and were divided into three groups: adults, children-with-ASD and children-without-ASD. Video 1 shows a soccer player from the participant's country scoring a goal by handling the ballwith the hand. Video 2 shows a similar situation, but in this case against the participant's national team. Videos 3 and 4 showed two similar goals scored by the Argentine soccer players Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. After watching them, participants expressed their opinions about what had happened. Children-with-ASD expressed negative opinions in Videos 1 and 2 (p = .36), whereas adults (p = .007) and Children-without-ASD (p < .001) expressed more negative opinions in Video 2. In Videos-3 and 4, adults preferred Maradona's goal while the group of children with ASD and children-without-ASD preferred Messi's goal (p < .001). Children-with-ASD did not show group favoritism when the choice involved moral judgment. Autistic children seem to focus more on the protagonist's behavior, while people without ASD focus not only on the characteristics of the protagonist but also on the social context in which the event occurs.