Peers Influence Prosocial Behavior in Adolescent Males with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Peer praise right after a prosocial act boosts cooperative choices in autistic teens, especially those with milder traits.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Van Hoorn et al. (2017) asked teenage boys with and without autism to play a public-goods game.
Each boy could add coins to a group pot. Adding helps everyone, so it counts as prosocial.
After every round peers gave quick feedback: "nice move" or "selfish." The team watched how feedback changed coin choices.
What they found
Both groups gave more coins after prosocial feedback. Autism or not, teens followed praise.
Boys with many autism traits or low social interest were less swayed by negative comments. They kept giving even after "selfish" remarks.
How this fits with other research
Yamamoto et al. (2022) got the same lift with simpler feedback. Their teens with autism quickly learned workplace niceties like "thank you" after hearing "good job." Together the two papers show feedback alone can grow social acts in autistic adolescents.
Silva et al. (2020) seems to disagree. They saw autistic teens give less help after watching social exclusion. The gap is about timing. Catarina asked for instant, self-driven empathy. Jorien gave clear praise right after the act. When feedback is direct, prosocial behavior rises; when it is missing, it may stay flat.
Humphrey et al. (2011) observed that autistic teens usually sit alone and react aggressively in school. Jorien’s study offers a fix: brief peer praise can flip those patterns and spark cooperative choices.
Why it matters
You can use peer praise during games, group work, or lunch clubs. A quick "nice share" after a student donates supplies or helps a partner can increase future helping. Watch for students with strong autism traits; they may need extra prompts instead of just corrections. Try pairing praise with clear visual cues to widen the effect.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Peer influence has a profound impact on decision-making in typically developing adolescents. In this study, we examined to what extent adolescent males (age 11-17 years; N = 144) with and without autism (ASD) were influenced by peer feedback on prosocial behavior, and which factors were related to individual differences in peer feedback sensitivity. In a public goods game, participants made decisions about the allocation of tokens between themselves and their group-in absence or presence of peer feedback. Adolescents with and without ASD were sensitive to peer feedback on prosocial behavior. More autism traits and social interest were associated with less sensitivity to antisocial feedback, suggesting that peer feedback creates opportunities for social adjustment in those with and without ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2017 · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3143-z