2026/07/28 by Natàlia Barbarroja, Francesca Giardini, Mikhail Ordin +1
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Autism Spectrum Disorder Research #Child and Animal Learning Development #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10803-026-07465-3
PURPOSE: This study investigated how adolescents and young adults, both with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), handle and disseminate gossip, particularly when it involves norm-violating, reputation-damaging information. METHODS: We presented participants with a series of narratives in which a fictional character either adhered to or violated established social norms and asked participants whether they would disclose the newly acquired information. RESULTS: We found that negative content-especially involving norm transgressions-was 1.5 times more likely to be shared, regardless of neurodevelopmental profile. Surprisingly, participants across both groups-those with ASD and those without-were equally likely to disseminate harmful gossip, challenging assumptions about reduced reputational sensitivity among autistic participants. However, differences emerged in qualitative patterns: participants in the comparison group often preferred peer recipients and cited reputational protection as a reason for withholding gossip, while participants in the autistic sample more frequently shared information with authority figures and did not reference reputational concerns. CONCLUSION: These tendencies suggest that individuals in the comparison group may be more motivated by social affiliation, whereas their age-matched autistic counterparts may place greater emphasis on norm enforcement. Overall, our results highlight a communicative hierarchy in which norm-related information takes precedence. Given that the autistic sample had a significantly lower mean IQ than the comparison sample, caution is warranted when generalizing these findings to the broader population of autistic adolescents and young adults.