Double empathy problem

Uncommon card · No. 106118

The double empathy problem is a psychological and sociological theory first coined in 2012 by Damian Milton, an autistic autism researcher. This theory proposes that many of the difficulties autistic individuals face when socializing with non-autistic individuals are due, in part, to mismatch and a lack of mutual understanding between the two groups, meaning that most autistic people struggle to understand and empathize with non-autistic people, whereas most non-autistic people also struggle to understand and empathize with autistic people. This lack of mutual understanding may stem from bidirectional differences in dispositions (e.g., communication style, social-cognitive characteristics), and experiences between autistic and non-autistic individuals, as opposed to always being an inherent deficit. It has been suggested that it is the mutual responsibility of autistic and non-autistic individuals to overcome the two-way empathy and communication challenges. Apart from findings that generally...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Crompton, DeBrabander, Heasman, Milton, and Sasson, CC BY 4.0