Misconceptions Regarding Autistic Persons and Their Ability to Feel Empathy
Research in the past few decades has been providing a consistent increased understanding and knowledge of Autism and Autistic individuals. It’s helped in developing new methods of assisting Autistic persons and it’s also contributed towards reducing much of the stigma and misconceptions as well.
One inaccurate view of Autistic persons, was that they lack the ability to feel empathy. This might have partly been due to some Autistic individuals experiencing overstimulation and it’s effects. A sensory overload in an Autistic person can throw someone off from possibly noticing what someone else is experiencing at that time. However, that doesn’t mean that Autistic persons aren’t capable of any type of empathy.
We now understand this is not the case with all Autistic individuals and that indeed many can even experience a more heightened degree of certain kinds of empathy. This varies by person as we’re each unique in what our Autistic traits are, and how much they impact us. While some might experience a reduced level of cognitive empathy, they might also be prone to experiencing a heightened degree of emotional empathy. This is referred to as “Empathic disequilibrium”. This disequilibrium in Autistic females seems to be more common than in males. An elevated amount of emotional empathy, with a slight to moderately reduced degree of cognitive empathy, might be what drives some of us to have a constant need to understand the contributing factors that serve as the basis for another person’s experiences and feelings.
So what is the difference between emotional and cognitive empathy? Emotional empathy is defined as “(responding to another person’s mental states with an appropriate emotion)” and involves 3 different components. From the next article linked: “The first is feeling the same emotion as another person.. The second component, personal distress, refers to one’s own feelings of distress in response to perceiving another’s plight.. The third emotional component, feeling compassion for another person, is the one most frequently associated with the study of empathy in psychology,”
Cognitive empathy is different, and is how well we grasp and *understand* another person’s emotions as well as their emotional responses to what they experience. This can further explain why some people who have an elevated amount of emotional empathy, yet a decreased cognitive empathy, often have a constant need to understand the workings of other people’s behavior and responses.
These traits involving levels of emotional or cognitive empathy, are likely physiological in origin. We already know that neurodiverse, or Autistic individuals might actually be “wired” a bit differently in the brain, and the ways in which their brain functions, can vary compared to neurotypical persons and even be different from one Autistic person to the next. Having access to better testing now, and more understanding of the various possible traits of Autism can contribute towards developing better ways to assist Autistic persons.
It’s expected that Autistic persons might also have additional issues to contend with such as depression, anxiety or ADHD. These might possibly be a responsive issue to coping with the complexities of Autistic traits. There’s also the possibility that these conditions and issues occur alongside Autistic traits as well. Still more studies need to be done and the specifics likely vary greatly from person to person. So a tailored and individual approach to helping improve the lives of Autistic persons, is the best way to go.
But for the meantime, we can now say that we do have a better understanding of Autistic individuals and empathy. That there certainly isn’t a solid argument that they *lack* empathy, and many very good arguments that their ways of experiencing and expressing various types of empathy, is simply different than in neurotypical individuals.
