Mathematically Gifted Adolescents Have Deficiencies in Social Valuation and Mentalization

Many mathematically gifted adolescents are characterized as being indolent, underachieving and unsuccessful despite their high cognitive ability. This is often due to difficulties with social and emotional development. However, research on social and emotional interactions in gifted adolescents has been limited. The purpose of this study was to observe differences in complex social strategic behaviors between gifted and average adolescents of the same age using the repeated Ultimatum Game. Twenty-two gifted adolescents and 24 average adolescents participated in the Ultimatum Game. Two adolescents participate in the game, one as a proposer and the other as a responder. Because of its simplicity, the Ultimatum Game is an apt tool for investigating complex human emotional and cognitive decision-making in an empirical setting. We observed strategic but socially impaired offers from gifted proposers and lower acceptance rates from gifted responders, resulting in lower total earnings in the Ultimatum Game. Thus, our results indicate that mathematically gifted adolescents have deficiencies in social valuation and mentalization.

诸多数学资优青少年尽管具备较高的认知能力，却往往被认为怠惰、学业成就不足且表现不佳。此类现象往往源于其社交与情感发展困境。然而，目前针对资优青少年社交与情感互动的相关研究仍较为有限。本研究旨在借助重复版最后通牒博弈（Ultimatum Game），探究同年龄段资优青少年与普通青少年在复杂社交策略行为上的差异。本次研究共招募22名资优青少年与24名普通青少年参与最后通牒博弈实验。该博弈由两名青少年参与，一人担任提议者，另一人担任回应者。由于其规则简洁易懂，最后通牒博弈是在实证场景下探究人类复杂情感与认知决策行为的适宜工具。我们观察到，资优青少年作为提议者时会做出具备策略性但社交适配性受损的提议，而作为回应者时的接受率更低，最终导致其在最后通牒博弈中的总收益更低。综上，本研究结果表明，数学资优青少年在社会价值评估与心智化（mentalization）能力方面存在缺陷。