Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Section of Brain Imaging, Philipps-University Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann-Straße 8, D-35039 Marburg, Germany.
Res Dev Disabil. 2013 Apr;34(4):1312-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.01.009. Epub 2013 Feb 14.
The affective responses to another person's condition depend on the ability to reflect about another's thoughts and intentions. This is relevant also for high-functioning individuals with ASD who have considerable difficulties in reading the intentions of others. With the present study we introduce a novel paradigm to induce vicarious embarrassment as a form of social pain. We predicted that the vicarious embarrassment experiences of high-functioning individuals with ASD should specifically decline in social contexts that require reflecting on another's intentions. Thirty-two young adults with high-functioning ASD were matched with regards to age, gender, and verbal IQ to a control group. Vicarious embarrassment was examined with previously validated stimuli describing 30 situations that elicit vicarious embarrassment in the observer. The situations manipulated whether the displayed protagonist either accidentally or intentionally transgressed a social norm in public and participants rated their vicarious embarrassment from the observer's perspective. The ASD group showed comparable vicarious embarrassment experience in response to observing another's accidental norm transgressions but significantly reduced vicarious embarrassment when observing another who intentionally violated socials norms. Vicarious embarrassment was significantly correlated with trait empathy in the ASD group. In complex social scenarios individuals with ASD are impaired in reporting experience of vicarious embarrassment, primarily when it is required to reflect on another's intentions. The present study thus contributes to a better understanding of how persons with ASD are affected in the diversity of empathic processes in the social, everyday life environment they are embedded in.
他人状况引起的情感反应取决于对他人想法和意图进行反思的能力。这对于高功能自闭症谱系障碍患者也很重要，他们在解读他人意图方面存在相当大的困难。在本研究中，我们引入了一种新的范式来引发替代性尴尬，这是一种社会痛苦的形式。我们预测，高功能自闭症谱系障碍患者的替代性尴尬体验应该会在需要反思他人意图的社交情境中具体减少。我们将 32 名高功能自闭症谱系障碍的年轻成年人与年龄、性别和语言智商相匹配的对照组进行了匹配。通过先前验证过的刺激物来检查替代性尴尬，这些刺激物描述了 30 种会在观察者中引起替代性尴尬的情况。这些情况操纵了显示的主角是在公共场合意外还是故意违反社会规范，参与者从观察者的角度对他们的替代性尴尬进行了评分。与观察他人意外违反规范的情况相比，自闭症谱系障碍组在观察他人故意违反社会规范的情况下表现出相当的替代性尴尬体验，但在观察他人故意违反社会规范的情况下，他们的替代性尴尬体验明显减少。在自闭症谱系障碍组中，替代性尴尬与特质同理心显著相关。在复杂的社交场景中，自闭症谱系障碍患者在报告替代性尴尬体验方面存在障碍，主要是在需要反思他人意图时。因此，本研究有助于更好地理解自闭症谱系障碍患者在他们所处的社交、日常生活环境中的各种同理心过程中是如何受到影响的。
