Understanding decision-making in autistic children and adolescents: Insights from deliberative processes and behavioral economic paradigms

Prior research has shown conflicting findings on decision-making differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals. To address this issue, we applied the Ultimatum and Dictator Games to examine explicit measures (probability of endorsing monetary offers) and implicit measures (response times) associated with decision-making behaviors. By analyzing response times, we aimed to determine whether decisions were intuitive (rapid) or deliberative (slower) reasoning processes. In addition, we administered an executive functions questionnaire to explore how cognitive skills correlate with implicit and explicit decision-making behaviors. The study included 24 autistic and 24 non-autistic children and adolescents aged 8–18 years. Results showed that autistic participants were less likely to propose selfish offers in the Dictator Game than their non-autistic peers. Among autistic participants, this lower tendency to propose selfish offers correlated with better executive function skills. Regarding response times, autistic participants exhibited slower responses than non-autistic participants when accepting and proposing selfish offers in both games. These findings reveal differences in selfish offer tendencies and deliberative reasoning among participants, suggesting that slower decision-making in autistic participants reflects a focus on fairness and sociomoral reasoning. Future research can explore how this reasoning style influences social interactions in various scenarios. Lay Abstract Autistic kids and teens often have unique ways of communicating and socializing with others. Making decisions is important in how we behave daily and how we socialize. To study if autistic participants tend to make more cooperative or selfish choices, we used two games where participants had to share money between themselves and another player. Previous results were not consistent and that is why general assumptions could not be established. Also, previous results focused on the final decisions and did not consider the process that leads to making decisions. To fill the gap in what we know, this study dug deeper by evaluating how quickly or slowly participants made decisions and explored executive functions needed for daily decisions. The study found that autistic participants, with better executive functions, made less selfish offers (where they could keep more money than their peers) than non-autistic participants. Also, autistic participants took more time to decide than non-autistic participants, only when they could earn more money than the other player. Interestingly, these results are consistent with studies indicating that autistic children distribute resources without a primary focus on personal gains. These findings reshape how we view social exchanges and recognize that slow, deliberate thinking can lead to less selfish decisions in autistic children and adolescents. Future research could explore how this reasoning style influences social interactions in varied contexts.