Below is an interesting excerpt summarizing research on how kids with autism lack the skill to manage their reputation.
The autistic subjects showed normal activity during the “other phase” (when they were learning how much their partner was going to repay them), but they did not show the activation in the mid-cingulate during the “self phase” (when they were deciding how much to invest).
Why was there only a difference during one phase of the game? Imagine yourself at the moment you make an investment. This instance is your only chance to influence the other player. You are trying to read and manipulate his or her mind. At the same time, you are trying to build a reputation as a person who can be trusted.
Our speculation is that this process of reputation management is impaired in autistic individuals, because it depends on the ability to read the minds of others. This hypothesis can be tested experimentally. If we are concerned with our reputation then our behavior will be strongly affected by whether or not an audience is present to observe our actions. Consider, for instance, another sharing game known as the dictator game. One player is given $100 and is allowed to share any amount he or she chooses with the other player. In this situation, the rational thing to do would be to give the other player no money at all, because the second player is powerless to respond. Even “dictators” will typically dole out a small proportion of the money, however. When there is an audience for the transaction, dictators give away even more money. Presumably, they do not want to have a reputation for meanness or for acting unfairly. If autistic people are not concerned with their own reputation, then their behaviour should not be affected by the presence of an audience.