Researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Germany have identified a new behavioral sign associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In a study focusing on adults, the scientists observed that individuals with ASD tended to show greater generosity toward strangers compared to adults without ASD. The work appears in a scientific publication dedicated to autism research and contributes to a broader understanding of how autism can shape social decision making in daily life.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that typically involves differences in social interaction and communication, along with a pattern of restricted and repetitive behaviors. People on the autism spectrum often display social and communicative patterns that diverge from those of neurotypical individuals, which can influence how they interpret social cues and respond in various situations.
The new study delved into social neglect, a phenomenon describing how much a person might withhold resources from others based on social distance. The researchers recruited 28 adults diagnosed with ASD and 25 adults without autism to participate in a series of money-sharing tasks designed to simulate real-world distribution decisions.
Participants were asked to allocate a fixed sum of money between themselves and other participants in the group. The researchers introduced the concept of “money given up” to quantify how much the participant would sacrifice to achieve a fair or more generous outcome. For example, if a fair split would yield €75 for each participant but the choice to take a larger personal share without giving anything to others would provide €115 to the chooser, the individual would be effectively sacrificing €40 by sticking with fairness.
The results showed a clear pattern: as the social distance between the chooser and the other recipient increased, the amount of money sacrificed for fairness tended to decline. In practical terms, people were more likely to take a larger share for themselves when the other party was a stranger or felt distant from them socially, rather than sharing equitably with someone closer in social connection.
Across both groups, the tendency to withhold more when faced with a distant other was present, yet it was notably less pronounced among individuals with ASD. In other words, autistic adults demonstrated a greater propensity toward generosity toward people they had never met, suggesting a distinct profile of social decision making in ASD that emphasizes equitable behavior toward unfamiliar individuals.
Experts interpreting the findings emphasize that this pattern reveals differences in the cognitive and emotional processes underpinning social choices for people with autism compared to those without ASD. The study contributes to a growing body of work showing that autism can influence how people weigh fairness, reciprocity, and the social significance of a given interaction.
In the broader context of autism research, these insights add nuance to discussions about social behavior, empathy, and the kinds of environments that support positive social interactions for autistic individuals. They also highlight the importance of considering the role of social distance when evaluating how people with or without autism respond to shared resources in group settings, workplaces, and everyday life.
Looking back at the trajectory of related science, researchers have long explored how prenatal and early life factors may relate to the development of ASD and comorbid conditions. In the past, some studies suggested associations between maternal factors, including exposure to certain substances during pregnancy, and later cognitive or behavioral outcomes in children. The current findings, however, focus squarely on social decision making in adults with ASD and how it manifests in resource distribution, offering a complementary perspective within the spectrum of autism research.