Autism, Empathy and Moral Agency

Psychopaths have long been of interest to moral philosophers, since a careful examination of their peculiar deficiencies may reveal what features are normally critical to the development of moral agency. What underlies the psychopath's amoralism? A common and plausible answer to this question is that the psychopath lacks empathy. Lack of empathy is also claimed to be a critical impairment in autism, yet it is not at all clear that autistic individuals share the psychopath's amoralism. How is empathy characterized in the literature, and how crucial is empathy, so described, to moral understanding and agency? I argue that an examination of moral thinking in high-functioning autistic people supports a Kantian rather than a Humean account of moral agency.     

初中生网络欺负的发展趋势：道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的作用

以496名初中生为研究对象, 对其网络欺负行为进行为期2年的4次追踪测试, 同时测试其道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注。采用潜变量增长模型探讨初中生网络欺负行为的发展轨迹, 并分析道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的影响。结果发现, (1)在2年时间内, 初中生网络欺负行为呈显著下降趋势, 起始水平与下降速度有显著负相关; (2)道德推脱能显著正向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 负向预测其下降趋势; (3)观点采择能够显著负向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 正向预测其下降趋势。上述结果肯定了道德推脱与观点采择对初中生网络欺负发展轨迹的预测作用, 以网络情境支持了道德推脱理论, 部分支持了社会信息处理模型。     

初中生网络欺负的发展趋势：道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的作用

以496名初中生为研究对象, 对其网络欺负行为进行为期2年的4次追踪测试, 同时测试其道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注。采用潜变量增长模型探讨初中生网络欺负行为的发展轨迹, 并分析道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的影响。结果发现, (1)在2年时间内, 初中生网络欺负行为呈显著下降趋势, 起始水平与下降速度有显著负相关; (2)道德推脱能显著正向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 负向预测其下降趋势; (3)观点采择能够显著负向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 正向预测其下降趋势。上述结果肯定了道德推脱与观点采择对初中生网络欺负发展轨迹的预测作用, 以网络情境支持了道德推脱理论, 部分支持了社会信息处理模型。     

Self-reported health and cortisol awakening response in parents of people with asperger syndrome: The role of trait anger and anxiety,coping and burden

Caring for offspring with autism spectrum disorders entails high levels of stress for a long period of time and is associated with several types of health complaints. Few studies have focused on specific effects of particular disorders in the spectrum. This study was carried out with the aim of evaluating the global health of parents of people with Asperger syndrome (N?=?53) compared to those of typically developing children (N?=?54) through self-reported measures (medication consumption and somatic symptoms) and biological markers (cortisol awakening response [CAR]). Additionally, we analysed various psychological variables as potential predictors of caregiver health. We found that caregivers take more medication and have worse self-reported health than controls, but there were no significant differences in CAR between the groups. However, after controlling for negative affect, differences between groups in CAR reached significance. With regards to predictor variables, anxiety trait, cognitive-coping style, burden and anger temperament were significantly associated with caregiver’s self-reported health. These findings underline the need to develop interventions that foster improvements in the health of caregivers, reduce their burden and enhance their quality of life.     

Dissociation between cognitive and affective empathy in youth with Asperger Syndrome

Autism spectrum conditions, among them Asperger Syndrome (AS), are generally described as entailing deficits in “cognitive empathy” or “theory of mind”. People with AS tend to have difficulties recognizing emotions, although the extent of these difficulties is still unclear. This study aimed to assess empathic profile in youth with AS (N = 38) and controls matched on age, sex and IQ. The study aimed to test if a dissociation between cognitive and affective empathy exists in AS. The study also aimed to explore emotion recognition in people with AS, and how it relates to emotional valence (positive, negative, and neutral emotions). The AS group scored lower than controls on cognitive empathy but scored within the average range on affective empathy. A deficit in emotion recognition was found in the AS group for positive emotions. These results confirm earlier findings in cognitive empathy and provide new insight about emotion recognition abilities in this population.     

Can Lonely People Behave Morally? The Joint Influence of Loneliness and Empathy on Moral Identity

We examine how loneliness moderates the effect of empathy on moral identity: the extent to which being a moral person is important to an individual's identity. Results of four studies show that only lonely people have increased moral identity when they have high (vs. low) empathy; empathy does not reliably increase moral identity for nonlonely people. We demonstrate these effects with psychological measures of moral identity as well as with downstream moral behaviors in various consumer settings. Our findings are consistent with the motivation theory of loneliness and empathy: Lonely people are capable, but are not motivated to empathize.     

Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: a person x situation perspective

This research program explored links among prosocial motives, empathy, and helping behavior. Preliminary work found significant relations among components of self-reported empathy and personality (N = 223). In Study 1, the authors examined the generality of prosocial behavior across situations and group memberships of victims (N = 622). In Study 2, empathic focus and the victim's outgroup status were experimentally manipulated (N = 87). Study 3 (N = 245) replicated and extended Study 2 by collecting measures of prosocial emotions before helping. In Study 4 (N = 244), empathic focus and cost of helping as predictors of helping behavior were experimentally manipulated. Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior.     

“Put Yourself in Their Shoes”: Testing Empathy's Ability to Motivate Cosmopolitan Behavior

Political theorists have long contemplated the concept of cosmopolitanism, yet almost no empirical studies have investigated how individuals can be encouraged to act as ethical cosmopolitans in practice. This article reports the findings of an experiment designed to investigate the effect of empathy on cosmopolitan‐helping behavior. The extent to which empathy may be useful in motivating cosmopolitan behavior has been the subject of substantial debate among political theorists. Empathy was manipulated using a perspective‐taking technique adapted from social psychological research, and the extent to which individuals were willing to engage in cosmopolitan helping was measured. Results showed that perspective taking increased cosmopolitan helping and that empathy mediated that effect. Furthermore, empathy was found to predict cosmopolitan helping even after controlling for several related constructs. Overall, results indicate that increasing empathy by encouraging people to take the perspective of distant individuals is a promising way to foster cosmopolitan helping.     

Construing action abstractly and blurring social distinctions: implications for perceiving homogeneity among,but also empathizing with and helping,others

Most people's actions serve goals that, defined abstractly enough, are quite similar to one another. The authors thus proposed, and found, that construing action in abstract (vs. concrete) terms relates to perceiving greater similarity among persons both within and across different social groups (Studies 1-3). By fostering perspective taking, viewing action abstractly also related to empathizing with and expressing willingness to help nonstigmatized and stigmatized others (e.g., AIDS patients; Studies 3-5) and to donating money to help those in need (Study 6). These findings held when controlling for ideological, motivational, and broad personality variables. Abstract action construals, then, appear to blur social distinctions, fostering perspective taking and empathy on the one hand but also perceptions of group homogeneity on the other.     

Cultural Background and Individualistic–Collectivistic Values in Relation to Similarity, Perspective Taking, and Empathy

A path model testing antecedents and consequences of perceived similarity was examined for Asian and European Australian participants ( N  = 240). Cultural background and values were measured, and participants read scenarios describing a target in distress acting according to individualistic or collectivistic values. Consistent with past research, feeling similar to the target was linked to perspective taking and empathy. Moreover, Asian participants were more collectivistic, and collectivistic values were linked to higher empathy. In the present data, however, both endorsed higher levels of collectivism than individualism; individualism scores were equal; and the two values were positively correlated. Moreover, neither cultural background nor values were consistently linked to similarity. Implications are discussed for research on cultural background, values, and social interactions.     

The development of cognitive empathy and concern in preschool children: A behavioral neuroscience investigation

This developmental neuroscience study examined the electrophysiological responses (EEG and ERPs) associated with perspective taking and empathic concern in preschool children, as well as their relation to parental empathy dispositions and children's own prosocial behavior. Consistent with a body of previous studies using stimuli depicting somatic pain in both children and adults, larger early (~200 ms) ERPs were identified when perceiving painful versus neutral stimuli. In the slow wave window (~800 ms), a significant interaction of empathy condition and stimulus type was driven by a greater difference between painful and neutral images in the empathic concern condition. Across early development, children exhibited enhanced N2 to pain when engaging in empathic concern. Greater pain‐elicited N2 responses in the cognitive empathy condition also related to parent dispositional empathy. Children's own prosocial behavior was predicted by several individual differences in neural function, including larger early LPP responses during cognitive empathy and greater differentiation in late LPP and slow wave responses to empathic concern versus affective perspective taking. Left frontal activation (greater alpha suppression) while engaging in affective perspective taking was also related to higher levels of parent cognitive empathy. Together, this multilevel analysis demonstrates the important distinction between facets of empathy in children; the value of examining neurobehavioral processes in development. It provides provoking links between children's neural functioning and parental dispositions in early development.     

Empathy, Shame, Guilt, and Narratives of Interpersonal Conflicts: Guilt-Prone People Are Better at Perspective Taking

Both guilt and empathic perspective taking have been linked to prosocial, relationship-enhancing effects. Study 1 found that shame was linked to personal distress, whereas guilt was linked to perspective taking. In Studies 2 and 3, subjects were asked to describe a recent experience of interpersonal conflict, once from their own perspective, and once from the perspective of the other person. Guilt-prone people and guilt-dominated stories were linked to better perspective taking (measured by changes between the two versions of the story) than others. Shame had no effect. Guilt improved relationship outcomes but shame harmed them. Path analysis suggested that trait guilt-proneness leads to perspective taking, which leads to actual guilt feelings, which produces beneficial relationship outcomes. Guilt feelings may mediate the relationship-enhancing effects of empathy.     

自恋与攻击行为的关系:观点采择和共情关注的调节作用

为考察自恋对攻击行为的影响以及观点采择和共情关注在其中的调节效应,采用自恋人格问卷、人际反应指针量表和简版Buss-Perry攻击问卷,对562名大学生进行调查。结果发现:(1)自恋显著正向预测攻击行为;(2)观点采择和共情关注均可负向调节自恋与攻击行为的关系,两者都能显著抑制高自恋者的攻击行为,却无法影响低自恋者的攻击行为。因此,提高观点采择和增强共情关注是减少高自恋者攻击行为的重要途径。     

Affective empathy as core moral agency: psychopathy,autism and reason revisited

Empathy has become a common point of debate in moral psychology. Recent developments in psychiatry, neurosciences and social psychology have led to the revival of sentimentalism, and the ‘empathy thesis’ has suggested that affective empathy, in particular, is a necessary criterion of moral agency. The case of psychopaths – individuals incapable of affective empathy and moral agency, yet capable of rationality – has been utilised in support of this case. Critics, however, have been vocal. They have asserted that the case of autism proves the empathy thesis wrong; that psychopathy centres on rational rather than empathic limitations; that empathy is not relevant to many common normative behaviours; and that rationality is required when empathy fails. The present paper analyses these four criticisms. It will be claimed that they each face severe difficulties, and that moral agency ought to be approached via a multi-tier model, with affective empathy as a baseline.     

When and why does sense of power hinder self-reported helping behavior? Testing a moderated mediation model in Chinese undergraduates

Many studies on power and its influence on pro-social behavior have been conducted with Western samples. Little is known about whether the relevant research findings can be extended to other cultural settings. This study investigates the relationship between sense of power and self-reported helping behavior in Chinese culture. Using a sample of 388 undergraduate students, this study examines a moderated mediation model in which moral identity serves as a moderator and perspective taking serves as a mediator. The results show that sense of power is negatively associated with helping behavior, and this association is mediated by perspective taking. That is, sense of power exerts a negative effect on perspective taking, thereby decreasing people's tendency to help others. In addition, moral identity moderates the direct and indirect effect from sense of power to helping behavior. Specifically, when moral identity is low, sense of power exerts negative effects on perspective taking and helping behavior, but these effects become non-significant when moral identity is high. This study sheds new light on the understanding of sense of power by examining its profound role in influencing pro-social engagement in Eastern cultures. Our findings suggest that powerful people with lower levels of moral identity may be less willing to consider others' thoughts and feelings, and act less helping behavior. While high moral identity may buffer the negative effect of sense of power and enable powerful people to better play a role in promoting social harmony.     

A comparison of moral reasoning and moral character in male and female incarcerated felons

Gender differences among incarcerated adult felons along dimensions of moral reasoning and moral character were examined. Previous work was extended by comparing adult male and female felons, and by exploring the relationship between moral reasoning and moral character. Subjects completed the Socio-moral Reflection Questionnaire, which measures moral reasoning. Moral character was assessed by a socialization scale, two empathy measures, and two autonomy questionnaires. Discriminant function analysis revealed that men were higher than women on moral reasoning, lower on socialization, higher on role-taking empathy, lower on emotional empathy, and more internal in locus of control. Moral reasoning was correlated with role-taking empathy and locus of control. Implications for theories of gender differences in moral reasoning and criminality were discussed.     

An islet of social ability in Asperger Syndrome: judging social attributes from faces

We asked adults with Asperger Syndrome to judge pictorial stimuli in terms of certain social stereotypes to evaluate to what extent they have access to this type of social knowledge. Sixteen adults with Asperger Syndrome and 24 controls, matched for age and intelligence, were presented with sets of faces, bodies and objects, which had to be rated on a 7-point scale in terms of trustworthiness, attractiveness, social status, and age, or, in the case of objects, price. Despite impaired performance on two important aspects of social cognition (second-order mentalizing and face recognition) the social judgements of the individuals with Asperger Syndrome were just as competent and consistent as those of their matched controls, with only one exception: there was a trend for them to be less able to judge the attractiveness of faces if they were the same sex. We explain this difference in terms of a weakness in mentalizing, specifically the ability to take a different point of view: While all other stereotypic attributions could be made from an egocentric point of view, judging the attractiveness of faces of one's own sex requires taking the perspective of someone of the opposite sex, a challenge for people with mentalizing problems. We conclude that individuals with Asperger Syndrome show preserved aspects of social knowledge, as revealed in the attribution of stereotypes to pictures of people. These findings suggest that there are dissociable subcomponents to social cognition and that not all of these are compromised in Asperger Syndrome.     

Tactile sensitivity in Asperger syndrome

People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were used: 30 and 200 Hz. The results demonstrated significantly lower tactile perceptual thresholds in the Asperger group at 200 Hz but not at 30 Hz, thus confirming tactile hypersensitivity but only for one class of stimulus. A second experiment investigated whether self-produced movement affected the perception of touch in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. A suprathreshold tactile stimulus was produced either by the participant (self-produced condition) or by the experimenter (externally produced condition) and participants were asked to rate the perception of the tactile stimulation. The results demonstrated that, while both Asperger and control groups rated self-produced touch as less tickly than external touch, the Asperger group rated both types of tactile stimulus as significantly more tickly and intense than did the control group. This experiment confirms the finding of tactile hypersensitivity, but shows that the perceptual consequences of self-produced touch are attenuated in the normal way in people with Asperger syndrome. An abnormality in this process cannot therefore account for their tactile hypersensitivity.     

Relationship Between Mother,Father, and Peer Attachment and Empathy With Moral Authority

We explored the relationship between mother, father, and peer attachment security, empathy, and moral authority in order to clarify certain problems of previous empirical research on such relationships. A sample of 202 Persian-speaking undergraduate students completed questionnaires pertaining to these constructs. The results revealed that mother and father attachment were significantly correlated with family, society welfare, and equality sources of moral authority, whereas peer attachment security was related only to society welfare and equality sources of moral authority. Out of the empathy subscales, only empathic concern was associated with moral authority sources. Empathic concern was also related to mother, father, and peer attachment, whereas perspective taking was correlated with mother and peer attachment. The combination of empathic concern and mother, father, and peer attachment predicted significant amount of variance of “principle source of moral authority” (including society welfare and equality sources). Findings support existence of a strong relationship between attachment security and the content of moral thought of adolescents, and findings redress an empirical imbalance in research literature on the relation of attachment and morality.     

The fight against prejudice in older adults: perspective taking effectiveness

Inhibition of prejudice appears to be more problematic for older adults, hence the need to develop programs to reduce intergroup bias at later stages in life. Perspective taking was analyzed in this study, as one of various cognitive strategies that have been shown to reduce such bias. Data on a sample of 63 Spanish participants with a mean age of 64.1 years was gathered after an intervention based on mental imagery, aimed at reducing explicit prejudice. A wide array of variables was measured (personality traits, values, empathy, and attribution) which may moderate effectiveness in perspective taking. Despite no main effect was found, effects due to interaction of perspective taking found in OLS regression analysis revealed that perspective taking based intervention was effective for some older adults, particularly those who had low scores on agreeableness, empathy, and universalism, and high scores on conformity. The conclusions suggest that perspective taking might be successfully applied to some profiles of older people albeit it is not as strong and transferable strategy as it used to be thought.