Social Decision Making in Autistic Adolescents: The Role of Theory of Mind, Executive Functioning and Emotion Regulation.

Woodcock et al. (2020) watched autistic and typical teens play an Ultimatum Game.

Each teen decided how to split ten dollars with another player.

The team also tested theory-of-mind, executive skills, and emotion control.

Autistic teens offered fewer fair splits.

After getting stingy offers, they stayed upset longer and used fewer calming tricks.

Typical teens matched their age and IQ, but still handled the social slap better.

Ghosn et al. (2025) looked at the same game and found autistic youth took more time, not less fairness.

Their slower choices show careful thought, not poor control — an update that refines Anne’s story.

Knaier et al. (2023) review agrees: autistic people do fine on simple reward tasks, yet struggle when values clash.

So the “selfish” offers may reflect slow fairness checks plus weak emotion cool-down, not mean intent.

When you run social-skills groups, give autistic teens extra seconds to decide and teach quick calm-down tools like deep breaths or brief self-talk.

Frame negotiation tasks as fairness puzzles, not speed contests, and coach emotion recovery right after rejection.