The emotion regulation and recognition account of empathy‐related processes in autism: a multimodal, multilevel case–control study

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Wood, J. J., Orm, S., Wood, K. S., Straus, J., Wolpe, S., Morrissey, A., Guevara, M. C., & Crowell, S. E. (2026). The emotion regulation and recognition account of empathy‐related processes in autism: a multimodal, multilevel case–control study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Article jcpp.70249. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70249

Publication date: 10 Oct 2026 Added to AutiHub: 13 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
8
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 8 (12.5%)
  1. Jeffrey J. Wood
  2. Stian Orm *
  3. Karen S. Wood
  4. Jolie Straus
  1. Samara Wolpe
  2. Ashley Morrissey
  3. Maria Cornejo Guevara
  4. Sheila E. Crowell

Abstract

Background Recent evidence suggests that many autistic individuals exhibit heightened emotional responsiveness to others' affect despite greater difficulty recognizing others' emotions and accurately inferring their perspectives. This study introduces and preliminarily evaluates the Emotion Regulation and Recognition Account (ERRA), a model proposing that susceptibility to emotion dysregulation and challenges with emotion cue interpretation jointly shape empathy‐related processing in autism. Methods Children aged 6–13 years (N autistic = 103; N non‐autistic = 40) participated; groups were matched demographically. Children watched five videos of youth exhibiting strong affect (e.g. sad and angry) and answered questions about their reactions to and understanding of the videos. These responses were coded for empathy‐related processes such as emotional contagion and perspective taking. Electrodermal reactivity to and eye gaze towards the videos were also measured. Multilevel models were employed to test hypothesized pathways in the ERRA. Results Autistic children experienced greater affective intensity but exhibited less accurate emotion recognition than non‐autistic children when observing youth exhibiting strong affect. Greater physiological and affective intensity were associated with greater attention shifting, and more frequent attention shifting among autistic children was associated with less accurate emotion recognition. Less accurate emotion recognition was, in turn, associated with less emotional synchrony and perspective taking, which were linked with less prosocial motivation. Conclusions The findings provide initial support for the ERRA by suggesting that, rather than experiencing indifference, many autistic individuals have strong affective reactions when observing others in distress. These reactions may lead to attention shifting, which can reduce awareness of others' emotional cues, potentially interrupting the unfolding of empathic understanding and responding. Empathy‐supporting interventions can build upon the affective responsiveness to others experienced by many autistic individuals.

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Cited references
54
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
10
2 / 54 (3.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 54 (3.7%)
References with detected author names
52 / 54 (96.3%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
9
References with raw author names still to review
2
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
208
From DOI or external metadata
208
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
41 / 208 (19.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 167 / 208 (80.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 208 (1.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 41 (7.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 3 / 183 (1.6%).
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