The idea that people who are autistic lack empathy is one of the most unfounded and pernicious myths out there

I think a lot of this myth come from differential performance on theory of mind tasks. But, performance on these tasks is heterogenous w/in populations. And, more importantly, theory of mind (& the tasks that "elucidate" it) is not the same thing as empathy.

A person might not draw upon the same social cues to make inferences about another person& #39;s knowledge/intention/feelings that other people do. That doesn& #39;t mean they do not have empathy re: the nature of the other person& #39;s experience. This is just false.

A certain % of the population draws on specific statistical input from facial expressions & prosody to make inferences about what another person is feeling. But not all people do. And that& #39;s just a difference in the link between info & interpretation. It& #39;s not a lack of empathy.

At the end of the day-& this is overly simplistic-but maybe useful: it& #39;s a matter of what info your brain processes and how it& #39;s processed. That is so diff than whether or not you understand human emotions, or whether you want to help people, or whether you care about their hurt