Autism and the ‘double empathy problem’

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. two authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Milton, D., Waldock, K. E., & Keates, N. (2023). Autism and the ‘double empathy problem’. In Conversations on Empathy (pp. 78-97). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003189978-6

Publication date: 4 Jan 2023 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Book chapter Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 3 (66.7%)

Abstract

Drawing upon both personal experience of being autistic and a parent to an autistic child, as well as theory and relevant interdisciplinary research, this chapter explores few questions, arguing that such a way of framing autism and empathy is deeply problematic. Definitions of empathy relate to a breadth of cognitive and subjective states, often as Baron-Cohen indicates, split into ‘cognitive’ and ‘affective’ empathy. In contrast to psychopathy and narcissism, which are often characterised as resulting from deficits in affective empathy, autism have been linked to a deficit in cognitive empathy. Milton suggests that the power relationships that can form between autistic people and psych-professionals who may see their ‘patients’ as lacking in socialisation, empathy, moral competency, and even full humanity can produce forms of psycho-emotional disablement, constraining not only what people can do but also what they can be and become.

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: 2 Oct 2026 01:35.

Cited references
89
With a DOI
83
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
24 / 89 (27.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 89 (1.1%)
References with detected author names
88 / 89 (98.9%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
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
257
From DOI or external metadata
257
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
135 / 257 (52.5%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 122 / 257 (47.5%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
33 / 257 (12.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 33 / 135 (24.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 21 / 207 (10.1%).
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