Autism and empathy: What are the real links?

Fletcher-Watson et al. (2020) wrote a position paper, not an experiment.

They reviewed past empathy studies and found holes in the methods.

The authors argue the ‘autistic people lack empathy’ story is wrong.

The paper says old tools confuse social style with caring.

Autistic people may show empathy differently, not less.

The stereotype keeps getting repeated anyway.

Newbigin et al. (2016) watched kids react to someone in pain. High-functioning autistic children comforted the person just like typical peers. This lab result backs the paper’s claim.

Simantov et al. (2024) asked teens and parents to rate the teen’s empathy. Autistic teens said they cared; parents gave lower scores. The gap vanished when the teen’s communication skills were counted out. Again, the measure, not the teen, created the ‘deficit.’

Tkalcec et al. (2023) seems to clash. They still found empathy gaps in autistic youth after removing callous-unemotional traits. The difference: they studied a clinical sample already flagged for behavior problems, while Sue et al. speak about the whole autism label. Same word, different groups.

Stop telling staff and families that autistic learners ‘can’t feel with others.’ Instead, teach partners to notice quieter cues—brief eye flash, gentle shift, offered toy. When you credit these signals, you model true empathy back, and real connection grows.