The Autism and Empathy Myth: What the Science Really Says

"For decades, we've been told that autistic people lack empathy. This assumption is embedded into diagnostic criteria. It shapes how society views autism and how autistic people are represented in movies and media. It influences everything from school policies and parenting advice to workplace opportunities and the treatment of older autistic adults. But does the research actually support this often-repeated assumption?"

"Researchers found that autistic and allistic (non-autistic) individuals have different patterns of empathy. On average, autistic people are more likely than others to struggle more with cognitive empathy (understanding what others are thinking and feeling), while the difference in affective empathy-actually feeling others' emotions-is lower. Importantly, when the researchers looked only at the highest-quality studies, even the small differences in emotional empathy disappeared-they became non-significant."

"But why do so many papers still report more dramatic "empathy" differences? A key culprit is measurement quality. The Measurement Problem Unidimensional scales that collapse many social traits into a single "empathy" score (one example is the widely used Empathy Quotient) produced the largest apparent differences between autistic and allistic groups. However, these instruments mix items measuring empathywith items that tap social skills and communication style."

Across 226 studies with over 57,000 participants, autistic and allistic individuals show distinct empathy patterns. Autistic people tend to have greater difficulty with cognitive empathy—understanding others' thoughts and feelings—while affective empathy—feeling others' emotions—shows much smaller differences. High-quality studies render affective-empathy differences non-significant. Unidimensional empathy scales, such as the Empathy Quotient, exaggerate group differences by conflating empathy with social skills and communication style. Autistic individuals exhibit greater variability in empathy scores. Diagnostic criteria, media portrayals, and policy may reflect outdated assumptions stemming from inadequate measurement.

Read at Psychology Today