Abstract
Autistic individuals experience challenges in social functioning and have demonstrated atypical patterns of social cognition. However, limitations exist regarding the ecological validity of measures used to assess social cognition in autism, and the relationships between socio-cognitive processes are unclear. The current study aimed to investigate social cognition in autistic children using a novel assessment tool, comparing their social interpretation, perspective-taking abilities (i.e. cognitive empathy) and moral reasoning to that of neurotypical controls. The relationships between these socio-cognitive processes were explored in the context of socio-moral processing. Thirty-six participants were included in the autism group (86% male, aged 8–17 years-old) and 36 participants formed an age- and sex-matched neurotypical control group (86% male, aged 8–15 years-old). The autism group scored significantly lower than the neurotypical group in cognitive empathy only, t(69.37) = 5.95, p < .001. Higher levels of cognitive empathy, but not social interpretation, were significantly positively associated with moral responding, only in the autism group, R
2 = .11, F(1, 32) = 5.24, p = .029. Findings indicate the importance of perspective-taking abilities to social cognition difficulties in autism.