Most research into autism spectrum disorder focuses on difficulties and challenges, potentially overlooking abilities; evidence strongly suggests that individuals with ASD display enhanced rationality

Enhanced rationality in autism spectrum disorder. Liron Rozenkrantz, Anila M. D’Mello, John D.E. Gabrieli. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, July 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.05.004

Highlights

*  Most research into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focuses on difficulties and challenges, potentially overlooking intact and even enhanced abilities.

*  Empirical evidence strongly suggests that individuals with ASD display enhanced rationality: judgments that are more objective and decision-making that is less biased than that of neurotypical individuals.

*  Enhanced rationality may confer distinct strengths to individuals with ASD and may provide insights into the mechanism or ‘irrationality’ in neurotypical individuals.

Abstract: Challenges in social cognition and communication are core characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but in some domains, individuals with ASD may display typical abilities and even outperform their neurotypical counterparts. These enhanced abilities are notable in the domains of reasoning, judgment and decision-making, in which individuals with ASD often show ‘enhanced rationality’ by exhibiting more rational and bias-free decision-making than do neurotypical individuals. We review evidence for enhanced rationality in ASD, how it relates to theoretical frameworks of information processing in ASD, its implications for basic research about human irrationality, and what it may mean for the ASD community.

Keywords: autismdecision-makingskillsrationality