title: Divergent roles of autistic and alexithymic traits in utilitarian moral judgments in adults with autism.
abstract: This study investigated hypothetical moral choices in adults with high-functioning autism and the role of empathy and alexithymia in such choices. We used a highly emotionally salient moral dilemma task to investigate autistics' hypothetical moral evaluations about personally carrying out harmful utilitarian behaviours aimed at maximizing welfare. Results showed that they exhibited a normal pattern of moral judgments despite the deficits in social cognition and emotional processing. Further analyses revealed that this was due to mutually conflicting biases associated with autistic and alexithymic traits after accounting for shared variance: (a) autistic traits were associated with reduced utilitarian bias due to elevated personal distress of demanding social situations, while (b) alexithymic traits were associated with increased utilitarian bias on account of reduced empathic concern for the victim. Additionally, autistics relied on their non-verbal reasoning skills to rigidly abide by harm-norms. Thus, utilitarian moral judgments in autism were spared due to opposite influences of autistic and alexithymic traits and compensatory intellectual strategies. These findings demonstrate the importance of empathy and alexithymia in autistic moral cognition and have methodological implications for studying moral judgments in several other clinical populations.
authors.affiliation: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Neuroscience Sector, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Indrajeet
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Melsbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hennig-Fast
authors.affiliation: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Neuroscience Sector, Trieste, Italy.|Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Silani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult