Autistic Traits And Altruistic Behavior In College Students: The Mediation Effect Of Empathy And The Intervention Of Group Sandplay

Altruism is a prosocial behavior in which an individual offers to help others without any form of reward and is influenced by factors such as cognition and personality.Individuals with high scores of autism often have social difficulties and less prosocial behavior,giving others an impression of indifference and uncaring.In order to explore the effect of empathy ability on the altruistic behavior of college students with high scores for autistic traits,three studies were carried out.In Study 1,to explore the mediating effect of empathy in the relationship between autistic traits and altruistic behaviors among college students,the Autism Spectrum Quotient,Interpersonal Reactivity Index-Chinese,and Altruistic Behavior Questionnaire for College Students were administered to 435 college students in a university in Fujian.The results found that(1)autistic traits,empathy,and altruistic behaviors were bilaterally correlated,with empathy positively correlated with altruistic behaviors;autistic traits were negatively correlated with empathy and altruistic behaviors;(2)college students’ empathy ability partially mediated between autistic trait and altruistic behavior.In Study 2,40 college students with high or low autistic trait subgroups were selected,and a 2(autistic trait: high subgroup,low subgroup)× 2(empathic initiation: initiation group,no initiation group)between-subjects design was drived to examine subjects’ performance in completing the donation task and the implicit altruism experiment.The results found that(1)individuals’ altruistic behavior after empathic initiation was significantly different from altruistic behavior without empathic initiation;(2)high autistic trait individuals’ altruistic behaviors differed significantly from those of individuals with low autistic traits;and(3)the interaction between empathy initiation and autistic traits was not significant.In Study 3,to investigate the effects of group sandplay to increase altruistic behaviors and enhance empathic abilities in high autistic trait groups,a group sandplay group(7individuals),a group counseling group(8 individuals),and a blank control group(8individuals)were set up with a pretest and post-test intervention design,and the results revealed that(1)group sandplay and group counseling both increased subjects’ altruistic behaviors and enhanced empathic abilities,and group sandplay was more effective than group counseling;(2)during the eight group sandplay sessions,members demonstrated gradually open inner world,more defined self,and gradually increased altruistic behaviors,such as modifying,lining,and cooperating on the basis of understanding the emotions of others’ intentions,and members were more likely to summarize a common sandplay work theme,and the sandplay work as a whole and fluency were more obvious.In summary,empathy plays a partially mediating role between autistic traits and altruistic behavior in college students,empathy initiation increases individual altruistic behavior production,and group sandplay increases altruistic behaviors of individuals with high autistic traits by enhancing their empathy.