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Jaswal & Akhtar (J&A) assert that there is no social disinterest in autistic individuals. Social motivation is a complex construct and autism a highly heterogeneous condition, so the question of social motivation in autism might not have a global yes-or-no answer. Hence, defining what is different and what is not in social interest in autism remains open. As a contribution to the discussion, we would like to examine another domain that might also challenge the social motivation account in autism and furthermore, point to alternative explanations of autism: mutual social influence.
The idea that autistic individuals might be less influenced by others, and that they might try to influence others to a lesser extent, almost seems a tautology: “autism” derives from a Greek word, whose literal meaning is “self-centered.” Indeed, many aspects of autistic behaviour might be (and often have been) interpreted as resulting from a reduced social influence: As an example, atypical interests could be indicative of a tendency to orient one's preferences independently from any influence from others, or even from any interest in others. Experimental results also suggest that autistic individuals are less influenced by others: When sharing an amount of money (Izuma et al. 2011) or completing a cognitive task (Chevallier et al. 2014; de C Hamilton & Krendl 2007), they are less likely than non-autistics to modify their behaviour in the presence of an observer. Similarly, autistic individuals would be less prone to be influenced...