Autistic People's Experience of Empathy and the Autistic Empathy Deficit Narrative

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Kimber, L., Verrier, D., & Connolly, S. (2023). Autistic People's Experience of Empathy and the Autistic Empathy Deficit Narrative. Autism in Adulthood, 6(3), 321-330. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2023.0001

Publication date: 11 Sep 2023 Added to AutiHub: 29 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)

Abstract

Background: There is a dominant discourse, both in clinical texts and throughout the academic literature, that autistic people lack empathy; however, over the past decade, both clinicians and academics have increasingly rejected deficit-based descriptions of autism in favor of more nuanced explanations of the experience of autistic individuals in a social world. Methods: This study asked 76 autistic individuals about their own experience of empathy and the oft-cited empathy deficit. Data were thematically analyzed and revealed a wide array of empathic self-concepts among respondents. Results: Notably, there was a high proportion of hyper-empathic experiences. Many respondents reported their empathic responses to be overwhelming, or even distressing. These different experiences of empathy contrast with societal expectations of empathy, which often result in additional labor for autistic people as they navigate the non-autistic centered world. Conclusion: Although the academic literature is, in some areas, slowly moving away from a deficit perspective, more broadly there is still a negative impact from misconceptions around autistic people and empathy. Further work needs to be done to not only explore this misconception at a societal (rather than academic) level, but also better bridge the gap around the changing ideas of empathy and real-world understanding of autistic empathy.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 12 Sep 2026 18:16.

Cited references
65
With a DOI
63
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
2
9 / 65 (13.8%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 65 (1.5%)
References with detected author names
64 / 65 (98.5%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
1
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
263
From DOI or external metadata
263
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
137 / 263 (52.1%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 126 / 263 (47.9%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
18 / 263 (6.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 18 / 137 (13.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 17 / 233 (7.3%).
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