An introduction to the double empathy problem

This animation was written and narrated by Kieran Rose (www.theautisticadvocate.com) and animated by Josh Knowles Animation.
It was commissioned by Health Education England and produced by AT Autism and Anna Freud National Centre as an accessible 4 minute introduction to the key ideas of Monotropism, originally as part of training for Tier 4 mental health practitioners (#Tier4AFC), led by Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou and Dr Ruth Moyse.
If you would like to find out more about the training please email the team on [e-mail] or visit:
www.annafreud.org/training/national-autism-trainer-programme/
If sharing please cite:
Kieran Rose (www.theautisticadvocate.com), Josh Knowles (Josh Knowles animation), Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou (Anna Freud Centre) and Dr Ruth Moyse (AT-Autism), HEE-funded National Autism Trainer Programme.

[@quietspark8703]

From my lived experience as an Autist it has always ALWAYS been neurotypical people that have trouble with empathy and truly looking at things from another person's perspective. When I have difficulty understanding others I do research to shore up my knowledge, to me it seems like most NTs just expect people to bend to their will rather than empathize with others and god forbid they spend 5 minutes a day educating themselves.

[@nse712]

I think this should be expanded to all neurodiverse individuals. People woth ADHD have just as much trouble relating to people who are neurotypical, and we easily get dismissed because we come off as flighty. I have been fighting this battle for YEARS...ever since I noticed, at 19 years old, that my brain isn't wrong, it just works differently (although I wasn't diagnosed until I was 36). I have been asking the people close to me to meet me halfway in communication and it wasn't until THIS year (I'm almost 40 now) that I got just one of them to understand why they arent entitled to me always communicating their way. The problem is systemic and deserves to have some attention brought to it!

[@sweetcrusader86]

Thank you. My new support worker promised that they're "neurodiversity affirming"..... But the last thing they learned about us is Theory of Mind. There's a HUGE empathy gap. So. I have to educate him up to date. They really need it basic when coming from ToM eugenicist crap, hey. Thank you heaps for this.

[@caseychupinski7553]

I feel like I've solved the double empathy problem, when I encounter it, by simply abandoning the idea of having a position, or stance of my own, and dedicating my energy and critical thinking power to putting myself in the shoes of whomever I'm talking to. I'm also high functioning, and didnt find out until I was 31, so I sort of did it that way as a survival mechanism. It worked, but I hav3 a very fragile sense of self, and self worth :/

[@junichiroyamashita]

You know,this kind of selfless state is really sought for in martial arts,such as Judo and Aikido. Being able to adjust to someone flow is a rare skill,in chinese legends,it was the mark of someone born with talent.

[@gnosis8142]

The information stated in this video ― includes Correct & Incorrect things. It's is mostly Incorrect. This is a 'Sour Grapes' belief-system; which is quite popular now. Autism certainly has a natural Empathy\Theory-of-Mind Deficit, and doesn't disappear with time. The only thing this belief can do ― is to prevent Autists from improving. This video should be called “Double InEmpathy Problem” ― since it describes 2 people without a good Empathy. It's not just about Empathy ― it's about quite a few things. But these people mesh it all into 1 mess. Empathy\Understand-Others ― is a MultiFaceted domain. Which includes the following: ✦ Instincts of Nature\Animal. ✦ Instincts for Bad Personal Characteristics. ✦ Instincts for Good\Divine Characteristics. ✦ Male | Female Instincts. ✦ Different Cognitive Types. ✦ Emergent Properties in Systems\Institutions\Cities etc. ✦ The Societal Norms of the Particular Society; which were fashioned - by the previous, as well as by the Arbitrary Reality. Some Solutions to those: ✦ First of all ― there's nothing to do about the wrong ones. Normies have plenty of Misunderstandings, and even Wars. ✦ Finding Like-Minded People. ✦ Understanding Human-Psychology. ✦ Learning Empathy. ✦ Learning the True\Good Human & Divine Characteristics. Also - I doubt there is such a things as NeuroTypicals ― but there are certainly Normies, which is a different thing.

[@Me-hf4ii]

This isn’t a solution. This is one sided. You’re doing all the work… and that sounds exhausting.

[@cameron9206]

Nah as a fellow autistic that’s really unsustainable I try to do it all the time with the same results every time

[@audreywandel]

Thank you for succinctly explaining this, I am Autistic and the validation is most helpful ❤

[@Person-ef4xj]

Coming from an autistic perspective I noticed that I seem to sometimes perceive the executive function of non autistic people as a deficit in social communication as it involves a top down approach of looking for the key point, when my brain naturally communicates using a bottom up approach of using individual details to form a picture and so looking for the key point in my communication causes most of the picture I'm trying to convey to get lost causing a bias in how my message is percieved. Basically while in most cases using executive function is beneficial for NTs I think when trying to understand autism, too much executive function can sometimes be a deficit.

[@dino_sore_asd7560]

Thank you for this explanation. I'm autistic and have heard folk mention double empathy but didn't know wot it meant 💛❤

[@vickioxenham7032]

Excellent as always, Kieron 👌

[@LeksiW]

I love the square trying to fit in a round hole graphic!! Excellent video. I will be sharing this on my discord server with my Twitch community. Thank you!

[@Alealea123]

Amazing video. I feel seen, I am crying.

[@IaconDawnshire]

Sometimes I wish we had a community that's exclusive to Autistics and NTs are now allowed in

[@furbyfinatic6830]

THIS IS REALLY FUCKING INTERESTSING!

[@PhoenixtheII]

Maybe if the whole world tells you, you're wrong. Maybe it's the whole world that is wrong. Basically, the Ad populum fallacy. If you need others to be just like you, for your empathy/understanding to work. Maybe you instead are lacking it. Empathy is viewing things from their side, using THEIR shoes. Not YOUR shoes. Metaphorically speaking.

[@ShetlandNeurodiversityProject]

Good content!

[@abstractalien12345]

I think it is interesting that the colored dots being in order was labeled as the neurotypical type. Until specified in the video, I assumed the logical dots were representative of the autistic group, since autistic people communicate more straight forwardly and logically. But the video’s assignment illustrates the exact societal assumption of normativity that it was talking about

[@themasculinismmovement]

My problem exactly

[@enta_nae_mere7590]

I feel like theres a misunderstanding that the majority/"normal" expressions of emotion arent socially learnt. I find that its more culture specific and as such its easier for say two americans one with autism and one without to communicate emotionally than it would be for either to communicate with a Kazakh. Autistic emotions and communicative approuches are somewhat condition based but vary more between individual than the majority who are more emotionally and linguistically conditioned to fit with socities expectations.

[@themasculinismmovement]

So why is it called double empathy if its really only half?

[@JoyFay]

Ableism

[@PizzatheHuttt]

You got it! Robot Approved!

[@davidb6477]

That’s definitely not how levers work. 😂

[@Andreas-gh6is]

I'm quite sure it's not a problem for real Humans, but rather for us autistics...

[@Daimo83]

I disagree with the concept of autistic culture. What does that look like exactly - 4chan? Individual minority children don't have a culture.

[@robokill387]

You need to actually look. There are tons of autistic organisations, meetups, and communities. Like, this isn't hypothetical, it already exists and has existed for decades. Austistic people are actually great at socialising with each other. Also, it's autistic *people*, not "children".

[@sweetcrusader86]

Check out "diversity in social intelligence" studies, from the double empathy field of research. That's right, Double Empathy is so internationally peer reviewed and replicated that it's now a field of study. We've also found that allistics form negative judgements of Autistic people before we even open our mouths, based on their neurological disposition for shortcuts (heuristics), called "thin slice judgements ". Would you like the academic links for any of this? It's very important we get off this now debunked deficit narrative.

[@Daimo83]

@@sweetcrusader86 was that aimed at me? I didn't say double empathy doesn't exist.

[@DJQuinn03]

What if they're adults? Are you also saying adults don't have a culture? Can you succinctly describe a neuro typical/allistic culture?

[@jeffdinglus9005]

Just because you do not witness or understand our culture does not mean we don't have one. There is a clear and big global autistic community and culture. Autism does not stop in childhood and we are not separated individuals, we find each other and create community like everyone else.

[@RWAutisticadvocate]

This is a great video

[@echoesandart]

will you accept that your video be put online with credit on another chanel, with translation in french, for accessibility in France? or maybe you'll accept to integrate the subtle in french if I give it to your team? @theautisticadvocate #theautisticadvocate

[@spunkydunky]

2:35 We should all just use the square hole. It seems like an easy fit for everyone.

[@MokaBeats664]

Best thing might be for NTs to acknowledge differences and stop defining them as disabilities, and trying to adapt them

[@nse712]

​@@MokaBeats664 I agree. I keep trying to redefine ND as "different" not "disabled" when talking to people (especially children) about it. The thing is, we kind of do need a little extra help to function in a world built for NTs, but our brains and ways of thinking and perceiving are not "disabled" overall.

[@shennaemedley3828]

Thankyou ❤❤❤