Proneness to guilt, shame, and pride in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and neurotypical children.
Autistic kids feel less guilt than peers, and stronger theory-of-mind predicts more guilt and pride, so teach perspective-taking to fuel self-conscious emotions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Davidson et al. (2018) asked autistic and neurotypical kids how they would feel in everyday stories. They used a child quiz called the TOSCA-C to measure guilt, shame, and pride.
The team also gave each child a quick theory-of-mind test. They wanted to see if better mind-reading predicted stronger self-conscious feelings.
What they found
Autistic children said they would feel less guilty than peers in the same stories. Pride and shame scores were about the same for both groups.
Kids with autism who scored higher on theory-of-mind also reported more guilt and real pride. Mind-reading skill mattered for these emotions.
How this fits with other research
Chen et al. (2026) extends this picture. They tracked kids in real time and found that stronger theory-of-mind led to more peer contact but also more momentary social anxiety in autism. Together the studies show that better mind-reading brings both social gains and stress.
Bao et al. (2017) conceptually replicate the self-emotion link. They found that autistic youth who view themselves more negatively also report higher anxiety and depression, matching the pattern that self-conscious emotions and self-views move together.
Gillespie-Lynch et al. (2019) add a twist that looks like a contradiction but is not. In their friendship-vignette stories autistic kids showed less sadness yet more verbal aggression than peers. The difference is emotion type: guilt needs self-reflection, while sadness after a tiff does not. The studies fit once you separate guilt from general sadness.
Why it matters
If you run social-skills groups, weave in activities that boost theory-of-mind and self-reflection. When kids can take another's perspective, they are more likely to feel appropriate guilt or real pride, key ingredients for friendship repair and celebration. Start small: after a role-play, ask "How would your friend feel?" and praise genuine answers to strengthen both mind-reading and self-conscious emotion.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: Self-conscious emotions (e.g., guilt, shame, and pride) are complex emotions that require self-reflection and self-evaluation, and are thought to facilitate the maintenance of societal norms and personal standards. Despite the importance of self-conscious emotions, most research has focused on basic emotion processing in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Therefore, in the present study, we used the Test of Self-Conscious Affect for Children (TOSCA-C) to assess proneness to, or propensity to experience, the self-conscious emotions guilt, shame, and pride in children with ASD and neurotypical children. The TOSCA-C is designed to capture a child's natural tendency to experience a given emotion across a range of everyday situations [Tangney, Stuewig, & Mashek, 2007]. We also assessed how individual characteristics contribute to the development of proneness to self-conscious emotions, including theory of mind (ToM) and ASD symptomatology. In comparison to neurotypical children, children with ASD showed less proneness to guilt, although all children showed relatively high levels of proneness to guilt. Greater ToM ability was related to more proneness to guilt and authentic pride in children with ASD. Additionally, we found that children with ASD with more severe symptomatology were more prone to hubristic pride. Our results provide evidence of differences in proneness to self-conscious emotions in children with ASD, as well as highlight important mechanisms contributing to how children with ASD may experience self-conscious emotions. Autism Res 2018,11:883-892. ©2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This research examined proneness to guilt, shame, and pride in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and neurotypical children. We found that children with ASD showed less proneness to guilt than neurotypical children. Better understanding of theory of mind was related to greater proneness to guilt and pride, but only for children with ASD. These findings are important because these complex emotions are linked with both positive and negative social behaviors towards others and oneself.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2018 · doi:10.1002/aur.1937