Social psychologists have known for a long time that how you present options heavily influences decisions. In one such study, people had a choice to earn $20, or to gamble for $50 and risk getting nothing. If you frame the “safe” choice as a $30 loss, people are more likely to gamble than if you frame the first choice as a $20 gain, even though this means the same thing [1]. These emotional decisions are accompanied by increased amygdala activity, and stronger activity in the orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortices correlated with less susceptibility to the framing effects.
People With Autism Make Less Emotional Decisions
Fifteen high functioning individuals with autism were given the same choices, but were only about half as likely as control participants to be swayed by the framing of the decision [2]. They seemed to be making superior decisions based on their lack of emotional interference. Their brain activity levels were consistent with their performance.
Sounds to me like Wall Street might benefit from consulting some of these participants with autism, and the people who are happily gambling our future away on the bailouts might be well advised to do the same.
1. De Martino, B., Kumaran, D., Seymour, B., & Dolan, R.J. (2006). Frames, biases, and rational decision-making in the human brain. Science, 313(5787), 684-687.
2. De Martino, B., Harrison, N.A., Knafo, S., Bird, G., & Nolan, R.J. (2008). Explaining the enhanced logical consistency during decision making in autism. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(42), 10746-10750.
8 Comments
nikkinate · October 21, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Personally, autism is a brain disorder that I really know nothing of. This particular article helped me to understand the difference between a judgment made by a person with autism versus one without a disorder. More frequently than we know, we let our emotions rule our decisions, but in this study people with autism were able to make a less emotional decision and not be as easily swayed. The brain is truly fascinating in how much we can let it control us or how much we chose to control it.
Laura Freberg · October 21, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Many researchers interested in autism are convinced that unusual development and activity in the amygdala underlie many of the observed differences in behavior.
ajacopet · October 21, 2008 at 9:18 pm
These findings are very interesting, and I totally agree that Wall Street may benefit from these participants. It’s entreging that based on their lack of emotion, they seemed to make better decisions. This makes me wonder if they somehow had this emotional component, would they still make the better decision.
joshpollitz · October 27, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Well to provide maybe some argument of discussion, I have studied topics in Math such as utility theory which try to gauge the significance of outcomes to a person. This is actually a common problem, especially in Game Theory, would you rather take $10 or flip a coin for $1000, and most people would rather take the coin flip since $1000 means a lot more to us then $10. At the same token, give the same person the option of taking $1,000,000 or flipping a coin for a $1,000,000,000, and almost everyone will take the $1,000,000, even though this is proportionally the same. So when looking at this experiment, I would say yes the wording plays a “psychological” role in swaying a subjects mind, but understanding Utility theory to this experiment raises new issues. What this may say about the autistic subjects is that they may not have the same utility as the average person. An autistic person might see the amount of the prize as our $1,000,000 prize, so this may make them play it safe. So it makes me wonder if an autistic person values money the same way a person that does not have autism values it.
jessberry · October 27, 2008 at 4:47 pm
After reading this the first thing that came to my mind was the saying, “don’t let your emotions get in the way of your success.” These findings seems to reinforce that we can learn something from everyone. I have the honor of knowing two amazing individuals with autism and I can now let them know that they should head to Wall Street.
Amber Thompson · October 28, 2008 at 11:47 am
I work with a young autistic girl, as a dance teacher. And I have found it so interesting that she has surpassed many of the other students in class in many different ways. Though she acts more distant and unfocused when I am teaching them something new, she is the first to pick it up and always remembers it the next week. And she also has corrected me in a few cases, creating solutions for dances at times that I am unable to think clearly in the moment. It is clear to me that there is a significant difference in learning and thinking abilities with autistic children, and not always for the worst.
Jaclyn Shostrom · October 28, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I used to volunteer at a preschool for children with disabilities and had the chance to work with many autistic children. They really are amazing people and the lack of social skills they show, though potentially frustrating at times due to lack of communication, seem to allow them to excel at other areas. It’s as if they really do think about what they’re doing before they do it whereas emotions in a person without autism really can cloud someone’s judgment. Although emotion is sometimes necessary in making decisions, this study shows that autistic people really can be beneficial and excel in other areas that many people normally wouldn’t consider them apt for.
NikkiNoroian · November 20, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Emotions do tend to complicate the decision making process! I find it fascinating that people with autism are able to make less emotional decisions–in fact, I envy it!
I can remember in kindergarten being around the sibling of a childhood friend who had autism. He rarely spoke and seemed to be in his own world. Whenever I heard the word autism since then, he was the person I thought of. I assumed his behavior was very similar to all people with autism. I am happy that as a result of taking this class I have a more realistic view of this condition.
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