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. 2013 Sep;43(9):2199-206.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-1757-3.

Brief report: difficulty in understanding social acting (but not false beliefs) mediates the link between autistic traits and ingroup relationships

Daniel Y-J Yang  1 , Renée Baillargeon
Affiliations

Brief report: difficulty in understanding social acting (but not false beliefs) mediates the link between autistic traits and ingroup relationships

Daniel Y-J Yang et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Why do individuals with more autistic traits experience social difficulties? Here we examined the hypothesis that these difficulties stem in part from a challenge in understanding social acting, the prosocial pretense that adults routinely produce to maintain positive relationships with their ingroup. In Study 1, we developed a self-administered test of social-acting understanding: participants read stories in which a character engaged in social acting and rated the appropriateness of the character's response. Adults who scored 26 or higher on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) questionnaire gave significantly lower ratings than comparison participants (AQ < 26). Study 2 found that difficulty in understanding social acting, but not false beliefs, mediated the link between autistic traits and perceived ingroup relationships.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Results depicting the link between autistic traits and perceived ingroup relationships (top model), as mediated by social-acting understanding (bottom model). All analyses controlled for response positivity (by including participants’ ratings in the control stories as a covariate). Estimates are standardized regression coefficients. *p <.05, **p <.01
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