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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.08.19.745606

Altered Social Cognition Associated with Kleptomanic and Instrumental Thefts

Goto, Y.·Iclal Cakir, M.·Yoshino, S.·Kita, C.·Won, M.·Lee, Y.-A.
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Abstract

Theft, including shoplifting, extorts a pervasive societal and economic burden. However, the neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying recurrent theft remain sparsely understood. In this study, we investigated social cognition deficits in theft recidivists with kleptomania (TR+K) and instrumental theft recidivists without kleptomania (TR-K) compared to control subjects without criminal records (CT), for which the Social Norms Questionnaire (SNQ-22) to assess explicit moral knowledge, alongside the Dictator Game (DG) and Hawk-Dove Game (HDG) to evaluate discretionary and competitive resource allocation with others, respectively, were administered. Bayesian statistical analyses revealed that all groups demonstrated comparable social norm recognition in SNQ-22 and prosociality in the DG. However, distinct behavioral profiles emerged in specific contexts, such that TR+K exhibited more unfairness than CT and TR-K at discretionary resource allocations in the DG, whereas in the HDG, TR-K demonstrated more aggressive, resource-monopolizing responses, particularly when against an aggressive opponent, than CT and TR+K. These results suggest that theft recidivism may stem from contextual failures rather than general deficits in moral knowledge, which are distinct between TR+K rooted in the internal factor, such as heightened loss aversion, and TR-K characterized by impulsivity over the external factor, such as social conflicts with others.

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Goto, Y., Iclal Cakir, M., Yoshino, S., Kita, C., Won, M., Lee, Y.-A.. 2026-08-24. Altered Social Cognition Associated with Kleptomanic and Instrumental Thefts. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.08.19.745606

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