This episode features:

-Are effective altruists especially prone to anxiety and depression?

-Are effective altruists high in autistic-like traits?

-Is effective altruism especially appealing to people high in autistic-like traits?

-Are people high in autistic-like traits more rational?

-Why do we fall prey to biases like the attraction effect, the sunk cost fallacy, and the framing effect?

-Are people high in autistic-like traits more oriented towards "System 2" thinking?

-Are people high in autistic-like traits less susceptible to cognitive biases?

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Brosnan, M., Lewton, M., & Ashwin, C. (2016). Reasoning on the autism spectrum: a dual process theory account. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 46(6), 2115-2125.

De Martino, B., Harrison, N. A., Knafo, S., Bird, G., & Dolan, R. J. (2008). Explaining enhanced logical consistency during decision making in autism. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(42), 10746-10750.

Farmer, G. D., Baron-Cohen, S., & Skylark, W. J. (2017). People with autism spectrum conditions make more consistent decisions. Psychological science, 28(8), 1067-1076.

Fujino, J., Tei, S., Itahashi, T., Aoki, Y., Ohta, H., Kanai, C., ... & Takahashi, H. (2019). Sunk cost effect in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 49(1), 1-10.

Gosling, C. J., & Moutier, S. (2018). Brief report: Risk-aversion and rationality in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(10), 3623-3628.

Guo, Q., Sun, P., & Li, L. (2018). Why neurotic individuals are less prosocial? A multiple mediation analysis regarding related mechanisms. Personality and Individual Differences, 128, 55-61.

Levin, I. P., Gaeth, G. J., Foley-Nicpon, M., Yegorova, V., Cederberg, C., & Yan, H. (2015). Extending decision making competence to special populations: a pilot study of persons on the autism spectrum. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 539.

Lodi-Smith, J., Rodgers, J. D., Cunningham, S. A., Lopata, C., & Thomeer, M. L. (2019). Meta-analysis of Big Five personality traits in autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 23(3), 556-565.

Ruzich, E., Allison, C., Smith, P., Watson, P., Auyeung, B., Ring, H., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Measuring autistic traits in the general population: a systematic review of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) in a nonclinical population sample of 6,900 typical adult males and females. Molecular autism, 6(1), 2.

Shah, P., Catmur, C., & Bird, G. (2016). Emotional decision-making in autism spectrum disorder: the roles of interoception and alexithymia. Molecular autism, 7(1), 43.

Autism Spectrum Quotient

Alexithymia Questionnaire

People with autism make more rational decisions, study shows

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