Reorienting social communication research via double empathy

Abstract

As a disabled autistic scientist, I often find myself reading research articles and studies that depict autistic individuals as incapable, aloof, uninterested and unempathetic. For decades, the literature has characterized autism as a complex neurodevelopmental disability that leads to challenges with social communication. These challenges are often placed on the individual, resulting in interventions seeking to change how the autistic individual behaves and interacts.

For a while, that is what I believed of myself: an individual who could never fit in because I lacked empathy and was socially aloof. Science explained that autism was the reason why I found friendships hard to acquire and maintain and why social communication was a challenge. Thus, I had to change to overcome these challenges. But change how?