Empathy

The double empathy problem is a psychological and sociological theory first coined in 2012 by Damian Milton, an autistic autism researcher. This theory proposes that many of the difficulties autistic individuals face when socializing with non-autistic individuals are due, in part, to mismatch and a lack of mutual understanding between the two groups, meaning that most autistic people struggle to understand and empathize with non-autistic people, whereas most non-autistic people also struggle to understand and empathize with autistic people. This lack of mutual understanding may stem from bidirectional differences in dispositions (e.g., communication style, social-cognitive characteristics), and experiences between autistic and non-autistic individuals, as opposed to always being an inherent deficit. It has been suggested that it is the mutual responsibility of autistic and non-autistic individuals to overcome the two-way empathy and communication challenges. Apart from findings that generally demonstrated mismatch effects (e.g., in empathy and mentalizing/theory of mind/mind-reading), some studies have provided evidence for matching effects between autistic individuals, although findings for matching effects with experimental methods are more mixed with both supportive and non-supportive findings. Some studies from the 2010s and 2020s have shown that most autistic individuals are able to socialize and communicate effectively, empathize or mentalize adequately or effectively, build better rapport, and display social reciprocity with most other autistic individuals. A 2025 systematic review of 52 papers found that most autistic people have generally positive interpersonal relations and communication experiences when interacting with most autistic people, and autistic-autistic interactions were generally associated with better quality of life (e.g., mental health and emotional well-being) across various domains. This theory and subsequent findings challenge the commonly held belief that the social skills of all autistic individuals are inherently and universally impaired across contexts, as well as the theory of "mind-blindness" proposed by prominent autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen in the mid-1990s, which suggested that empathy and theory of mind are universally impaired in autistic individuals. In recognition of the findings that support the double empathy theory, Baron-Cohen positively acknowledged the theory and related findings in multiple autism research articles, including a 2025 paper on the impact of self-disclosure on improving empathy of non-autistic people towards autistic people to bridge the "double empathy gap" as well as a 2026 empirical study that partially supports double empathy theory, as well as on podcasts and a documentary since the late 2010s. In a 2017 research paper partly co-authored by Milton and Baron-Cohen, the problem of mutual incomprehension between autistic people and non-autistic people was mentioned. The double