Empathy works both ways: autistic people's feelings are often misunderstood

The idea that people with autism lack empathy is superficial, and people without autism may find it just as difficult to put themselves in another person's shoes as vice versa, research suggests.

An article in Autism magazine overturns the stereotype that people with autism have difficulty imagining how others feel.

Participants who were shown videos of autistic and non-autistic people talking about emotional events showed that people without autism had significantly more difficulty understanding the emotions of people with autism.

The study also found that people experienced more intense emotions in their body when they saw videos of autistic people compared to non-autistic people. This feeling intensified when talking about anger and fear.

This has strong implications for social and therapeutic relationships with autistic people, said autistic researcher Rachel Cheang of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Brunel University in London.

"There's always this idea that people with autism don't have empathy. That's usually what you hear, but these results are quite shocking because they go against the way we usually think about it."

This is the first experimental evidence that, rather than lacking empathy, people with autism simply see the world differently, and people without autism have just as difficulty understanding their emotions as vice versa. This is called the "dual empathy problem", a theory proposed by Dr. Damian Milton in the early 2010s. Many autistic people agreed with this idea, but until now it had not been confirmed by science.

"It affects how autistic people are perceived," Ms Cheang said. "If they're happy about something and no one notices, people won't share the joy with them. And if they're upset about something, it won't be acknowledged that that person might be upset or sad about something. So they will be deprived of support or sympathy from others."

Cognitive psychologists measured autistic traits in 81 participants who were asked to rate the emotions - happiness, sadness, anger and fear - in videos of people with different levels of autism talking about their emotional experiences. In a separate task, they were asked to identify people's emotions in videos, rate their intensity, and label them on a body map. All participants were unaware of the diagnosis of the people shown in the videos.

People with autism have a higher risk of suicide than people without autism. Between 11 and 66% of adults with autism consider suicide in their lifetime, and up to 35% plan or attempt it, according to 2020 data. Ms Cheang said: "Obviously I'm now wondering if part of the fact is that no one understands them, sympathizes with them, feels what they feel."

“The implications are wide-ranging,” said research team leader Dr. Ignazio Puzzo. "It is important that caregivers, educators, therapists, physicians, hospital staff and clinicians are aware of these differences and focus on improving understanding or identifying how a person with autism feels in order to help alleviate their suffering and improve their well-being." p>