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Autism
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Moral understanding in children with autism

Cathy M. Grant

University of Sheffield, UK, cmg242{at}bham.ac.uk

Jill Boucher

University of Warwick, UK

Kevin J. Riggs

London Guildhall University, UK

Andrew Grayson

Nottingham Trent University, UK

Children with autism were compared with control groups on their ability to make moral judgements. Participants were presented with pairs of vignettes in which actions were either deliberate or accidental and caused injury to a person or damage to property. Participants were asked to judge which protagonist was the naughtier and to verbally justify this judgement. Results showed that the children with autism were as likely as controls to judge culpability on the basis of motive, and to judge injury to persons as more culpable than damage to property. Children with autism also offered some appropriate verbal justifications for their judgments although most justifications were of poor quality and reiterated the story. Results are discussed in terms of theory of mind and the possible role of deficits in complex reasoning and executive functions.

Key Words: autism • mental state understanding • moral understanding

Autism, Vol. 9, No. 3, 317-331 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361305055418
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Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
L. Young, F. Cushman, M. Hauser, and R. Saxe
The neural basis of the interaction between theory of mind and moral judgment
PNAS, May 15, 2007; 104(20): 8235 - 8240.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]