Some Associate Autism With Lower Empathy – But The Opposite May Be True

To be frank, I was always surprised to read that some people associated autism with a “lack of empathy” or “empathy dysfunction”.

I know autism is a broad spectrum, meaning a “rule” that applies to one person doesn’t necessarily show up in another. But I’d noticed some loved ones with autism seemed to experience more empathy (or at least a more intense empathy) than average, not less.

In 2024, researchers found a high percentage of “hyper-empathy” among autistic people.

Here, we spoke to one of the study’s authors, Dr Stephen Connolly, a Senior Lecturer in Aut...