Autism, Empathy and Neurodiversity

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

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Fellowes, S. (2026). Autism, Empathy and Neurodiversity. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 49(3), 493-504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2025.12.004

Publication date: 8 Jan 2026 Added to AutiHub: 11 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Sam Fellowes *

Abstract

Autism is typically understood to involve a lack of empathy. This does not fit a neurodiversity position whereby some or all aspects of autism are differences rather than disorders. The double-empathy problem provides a neurodiversity-compatible account whereby there is a mutual lack of empathy between autistic and nonautistic people. The author argues that the double-empathy problem is compatible with some autistic people having significantly reduced capacity for empathy. Portrayals of the double-empathy problem, which do not recognize this, could alienate autistic people who do have empathy deficits, increase conflict between autistic individuals, and increase conflict between autistic and nonautistic individuals.

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 18:19.

Cited references
36
With a DOI
21
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
15
5 / 36 (13.9%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 36 (2.8%)
References with detected author names
35 / 36 (97.2%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
15
References with raw author names still to review
0
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
68
From DOI or external metadata
68
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
25 / 68 (36.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 43 / 68 (63.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
5 / 68 (7.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 5 / 25 (20.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 61 (8.2%).
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