Empathy and Autism: Establishing the Structure and Different Manifestations of Empathy in Autistic Individuals Using the Perth Empathy Scale

There is a common mischaracterisation that autistic individuals have reduced or absent empathy. Measurement issues may have influenced existing findings on the relationships between autism and empathy, and the structure of the empathy construct in autism remains unclear.

Citation:
Brett JD, Preece DA, Becerra R, Whitehouse A, Maybery MT. Empathy and Autism: Establishing the Structure and Different Manifestations of Empathy in Autistic Individuals Using the Perth Empathy Scale. J Autism Dev Disord. 2024.

Keywords:
Adults; Autism spectrum disorders; Empathy; Measurement; Moderated non-linear factor analysis; Social cognition and social behavior

Abstract:
There is a common mischaracterisation that autistic individuals have reduced or absent empathy. Measurement issues may have influenced existing findings on the relationships between autism and empathy, and the structure of the empathy construct in autism remains unclear.