Do Autistic People Feel Empathy? Debunking Research Myths with Critical Thinking Tools

Episode Transcript
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Neurorebelpodcast (00:05):
Picture a library where half the books
contain brilliant insights andhalf contain beautiful lies, but
there are no labels to tell youwhich is which.
Jorge Luis Borges wrote aboutinfinite libraries containing
all possible books, but most ofthem meaningless.

(00:28):
Today, we live in his nightmare,an infinite internet where
information about neurodivergentminds multiplies faster than our
ability to verify its truth.
But what if I told you there isa way to develop perfect vision
in this hall of mirrors?

(00:52):
Welcome to Neuro Rebel, where wedon't just challenge assumptions
about Neurodivergence, we giveyou the intellectual tools to
dismantle them yourself.
I'm Anita, your host, autistic,gifted, retired law professor,
Fulbright Scholar, and yourguide through the Wilderness of
Neurodivergent information.

(01:14):
If you're new here, you've foundthe podcast that refuses to
oversimplify, won't romanticizeneurodivergence, and definitely
won't feed you inspiration porn.
Instead, we combine rigorousresearch with lived experience,
critical analysis with personaltruth.
We're building a community ofsophisticated thinkers who

(01:37):
understand that our liberationlies not in being understood,
but in understanding the systemsthat shape how we are seen.
So grab your favorite coffee ortea, adjust your environment
however you need it, and let'sbegin your transformation from
information consumer toinformation detective.

(02:01):
Before we dive in, if NeuroRebeladds value to your life, take 30
seconds to follow us on yourplatform.
Share this episode with someonewho needs these tools and leave
us a review.
It helps people find us in thealgorithmic wilderness.
And if you would like to supportthis work, you can buy me a cup

(02:21):
of coffee and connect with ourcommunity@neurorebelpodcast.com
and on social media@neurorebelpodcast.
Now let's get rebellious aboutinformation itself.
Today we're solving a problemthat affects every person who's

(02:42):
ever searched for informationabout their neurodivergent mind.
How do we tell legitimateinsight from algorithmic
nonsense?
How do you navigate a landscapewhere misinformation spreads
faster than research and wheremyths persist, despite evidence,
and where everyone seems to bean expert on your own brain?

(03:06):
I'm going to solve that problempermanently, not by giving you
more information.
But by teaching you to thinklike a detective about any
information you encounter.
By the end of this episode, youwill have mastered the
information detective Method.
Five investigative tools thatwork on everything, from TikTok

(03:27):
videos to medical professionalsto academic papers.
You'll understand why thepersistent myth that autistic
people lack empathy revealsprofound truths about how
misinformation spreads.
And you'll join an exclusivecommunity of critical thinkers
who don't just consumeinformation about

(03:50):
neurodivergence, theyinterrogate it.
We are using one devastatingmyth to teach you to see through
all of that.
Let me tell you about lastTuesday.
I was watching the news, whichhonestly I try to avoid because
of what happens next.

(04:11):
There was a story about familiesdisplaced by flooding, and
within seconds I was sobbing.
not just sad, but completelyoverwhelmed by their pain, their
uncertainty, their loss.
It felt like it was happening tome personally.
Then an hour later, I sawfootage of community volunteers

(04:35):
organizing relief efforts, andagain, tears.
But this time they were tears ofgratitude for their courage,
their compassion, their refusalto look away.
Now, according to one of themost persistent myths about
autism, this shouldn't bepossible because supposedly

(04:59):
autistic people don't feelempathy.
So what is happening here?
Am I broken?
Are the experts wrong, or isthis where our detective story
begins?
Is there something much morefascinating at play?
Today, we're going to use thissingle myth to teach you

(05:21):
something more valuable thanjust correcting misinformation.
We're going to give you fiveinvestigative tools that will
transform you into asophisticated consumer of any
information you encounter aboutNeurodivergence.
Think of it as developing x-rayvision for spotting flawed
assumptions.

(05:42):
Imagine information aboutneurodivergence like a mystery
novel.
Some stories seem perfectlylogical on the surface.
But when you start asking theright questions, plot holes
appear everywhere.
The difference between acceptinginformation and understanding it

(06:02):
lies in becoming a detectiverather than just a reader.
Let me introduce you to what Icall the information detective
Method.
Five Tools that will changeeverything.
Tool one.
The origin story.
Every piece of information has abirth certificate, and you ask,

(06:26):
where did this idea come from?
Who first said it?
When and under whatcircumstances?
What were they observing andwhat weren't they observing?
Tool two, the missing evidence.
What contradicts this claim?
What evidence exists that pointsin a different direction?

(06:48):
What studies have not been doneand what voices have not been
heard.
Tool three, the incentive trail,and this is where things get
interesting.
You need to ask, who benefitswhen this information is
believed?
What systems, industries, orassumptions does it support?

(07:12):
Who profits from this beliefremaining unchallenged?
Tool four.
The experience test.
How does this information matchup with actual lived experience,
both yours and others you trust.
When research contradictswidespread lived experience,

(07:33):
that's a red flag worthinvestigating.
Tool five, the applicationfilter.
What do you do with thisknowledge?
How does understanding thischange your next steps?
Information that cannot beapplied or only serves to shame
or limit you should bequestioned.

(07:56):
Now, let's put these tools towork on our empathy myth and
watch what happens when we startdigging.
Every myth has an archeologicallayer, as I said, a birth
certificate.
And this one, the empathy mythis particularly fascinating.

(08:17):
Picture this, it's the 1940s andresearchers are observing
autistic children.
They notice these children seemwithdrawn, less responsive to
social cues that neurotypicalchildren pick up easily.
But here's the crucial detailthat gets lost in translation
from observation to conclusion.

(08:39):
They were observing children inenvironments designed entirely
for neurotypical communicationstyles, using assessment methods
created by and for neurotypicalresearchers.
And even more than that, theywere tools designed and created
for white boys.

(09:00):
Everyone else need not apply.
It's like studying fish behaviorby watching the fish, trying to
climb a tree, and thenconcluding that fish are
terrible at locomotion.
The methodology shaped theconclusion and that conclusion
hardened into scientific fact.

(09:21):
The researchers weren'tnecessarily wrong about what
they observed, but they've madea catastrophic error in
interpretation.
They assumed that differentexpressions of empathy meant
absence of empathy.
They mistook communicationdifferences for emotional

(09:42):
deficits.
Think about it.
If you spoke only Spanish and Itested your intelligence in
English, would my conclusionthat you lack intelligence be
valid?
Of course not.
And yet, this is essentiallywhat happened with empathy
research for decades.

(10:05):
Here's what the origin storyreveals.
This myth, the empathy myth, wasborn from a fundamental
misunderstanding of what empathylooks like across different
types of minds.
The researchers had goodintentions, but they were
looking through the wrong lensentirely.

(10:27):
Now comes the plot twist thatchanges everything.
Let's look at tool two and themissing evidence.
Recent research revealssomething extraordinary.
When autistic people communicatewith other autistic people,
empathy flows beautifully inboth directions.

(10:48):
Researcher Damien Miltonidentified what he calls the
double empathy problem.
The breakdown isn't happeningbecause one group lacks empathy.
It's happening because we'reessentially speaking in
different emotional languages.
Neurotypical people struggle tounderstand autistic
communication patterns just asmuch as autistic People struggle

(11:12):
to understand neurotypicalcommunication patterns.
But here's what makes you adetective rather than just a
consumer of information, becauseyou're now asking what other
evidence was I never told about.
The missing evidence isstaggering.
There are studies showing thatautistic people often have

(11:36):
heightened emotional responses.
Research revealing that manyautistic individuals are so
empathetic, they becomeoverwhelmed by others' emotions.
There is data indicating thatautistic people frequently
choose careers centered onhelping others.

(11:57):
There's also the missingdemographic evidence.
Most early autism researchfocused exclusively on boys,
white boys, and often ininstitutional settings.
When researchers finally studiedautistic girls, women, and
people in their naturalenvironments, a completely

(12:19):
different pattern emerged.
Here's the detective questionthat unlocks everything.
If autistic people truly lackedempathy, why do so many of us
become overwhelmed by violencein movies devastated by others'
pain or drawn to helpingprofessions?.

(12:43):
The missing evidence doesn'tjust contradict the myth.
It reveals that many autisticpeople experience empathy so
intensely that they needstrategies to manage it, not
develop it.
Now, let's take the incentivetrail tool.

(13:06):
This one requires intellectualcourage because we are going to
follow the trail of who benefitswhen certain beliefs persist.
When we believe that autisticpeople lack empathy, several
things happen.
It justifies excluding us fromemotional labor expectations.

(13:28):
It supports intervention modelsfocused on making us appear more
neurotypical rather thanunderstanding our actual
communication styles.
And perhaps more significantly,it relieves everyone else of the
responsibility to learndifferent ways of expressing and
receiving empathy.

(13:49):
Now, I'm not suggesting aconspiracy.
I'm suggesting something moresubtle and pervasive.
When information supportsexisting systems and saves
people effort, that informationtends to stick around regardless
of its accuracy.

(14:10):
Think about it like this.
If you discover that the problemisn't that some people lack
empathy, but that differenttypes of minds express empathy
differently, now everyone has todo more work to understand each
other.
That is much harder than justassuming one group is deficient.

(14:33):
The incentive trail revealsuncomfortable truths.
Educational systems find iteasier to label students as
lacking empathy than to developmultiple ways of recognizing
emotional intelligence.
Healthcare providers find itsimpler to focus on teaching

(14:54):
empathy skills than tounderstand how autistic empathy
actually works.
And by the way, what are empathyskills anyway?
Even well-meaning family memberssometimes prefer to believe
their autistic relative can'thelp their direct communication
style rather than recognize itas a different but valid form of

(15:19):
caring.
Following the incentive traildoesn't make these people
villains.
It helps us understand whycertain myths persist despite
evidence to the contrary.
Let's take our tool for theexperience test.

(15:39):
This is where you become yourown expert.
You know your experience betterthan any researcher, any study
or any authority figure.

If you're sitting here thinking: "But I feel everything and (15:51):
undefined
sometimes so much," You are notbroken.
You're not an exception.
You are evidence that challengesa flawed premise.
When I watch people suffer onthe news and dissolve into
tears, when I see acts ofcourage and cry with gratitude,

(16:15):
that's not an absence ofempathy.
That's empathy.
So intense that it'soverwhelming.
Let me share what the experiencetest reveals from our autistic
community.
Autistic people frequentlyreport feeling others' emotions
so strongly that they have toleave crowded places.

(16:38):
They describe being unable towatch certain movies because the
character's pain becomes theirown.
They talk about sensing others'moods so acutely that it affects
their entire day.
This isn't a lack of empathy.
It's empathy without theneurotypical filters that

(17:00):
usually regulate emotionalinput.
The experience test also revealsthe double empathy problem in
real time.
How many times have you beentold you are too direct or you
don't understand social cues bythe same people who completely

(17:21):
miss your emotional signals?
How often have neurotypicalpeople failed to recognize your
empathy because it doesn't looklike their own.
Your experience matters.
Your observations count.
When information contradictswhat you know to be true about

(17:44):
yourself or others you trust,that contradiction is data worth
investigating.
Trust what you know about yourown emotional landscape.
If you feel empathy, whetherit's overwhelming, protective,
analytical, or expressed throughactions rather than words,
that's real empathy regardlessof what any myth may claim.

(18:15):
Let's turn over to tool five,the application filter, and
here's where the empowering partcomes in.
What do you do with this newunderstanding?
First, you trust your experiencemore and external authorities
less.
If someone tells you that youlack empathy because you express

(18:37):
it differently, you now havetools to investigate that claim
rather than internalizing it.
Second, you start applying thesesame five tools to every piece
of information you encounterabout neurodivergence.
Does this claim about A DHD anorganization hold up to the

(18:58):
origin story test?
What missing evidence existsabout giftedness that I haven't
been told?
Who benefits when certainbeliefs about learning
differences persist.
Third, you become part of thesolution.
When you hear someone repeat theempathy myth, you can share what

(19:21):
you've learned not as gospeltruth, but as an invitation to
think more deeply.
The application filtertransforms you from passive
recipient to activeinvestigator.
You've just joined an exclusiveclub, the club of people who
don't just consume informationbut investigate it.

(19:44):
This isn't just about correctingmyths, though we've certainly
done that.
This is about developing a moresophisticated relationship with
information itself.
And what is the bigger picture.
What we have discovered aboutempathy isn't really about
empathy at all.
It's about the differencebetween accepting information

(20:07):
and understanding it.
It's about the power of askingbetter questions.
Every time someone tells yousomething definitive about
Neurodivergent minds, you nowhave five investigative tools:
you can trace Origins, hunt formissing evidence, follow
incentive trails, test againstexperience and decide for

(20:31):
yourself how to apply what youhave learned.
This matters beyond personalvalidation.
The myths about neurodivergentminds shape policies that affect
millions of people.
They influence educationalapproaches, workplace
accommodations, healthcaredecisions and family

(20:53):
relationships.
When we accept falseinformation, we participate in a
system that limitsneurodivergent potential.
When we investigate andchallenge that information, we
create space for more accurateunderstanding and better support
systems.

(21:14):
The empathy myth specificallyhas caused profound harm.
Autistic children have beensubjected to interventions
designed to teach them empathythey already possess.
Autistic adults have beenexcluded from caregiving roles
because of assumptions abouttheir emotional capabilities,

(21:36):
and families have misunderstoodtheir autistic members'
Expressions of love and concern.
But here's the beautiful part.
Understanding how one mythoperates gives you the blueprint
for dismantling them all.
The same pattern appears overand over again.

(21:57):
Flawed origins, missingevidence, incentive trails,
contradiction with livedexperience, and harmful
application.
You're not just learning aboutempathy and autism.
You're developing X-ray visionfor questionable information
about all aspects ofneurodivergence.

(22:20):
Before you go.
I want you to understand whatjust happened.
You didn't just learn aboutempathy and autism, though we
certainly dismantled that mythwith surgical precision.
You developed something far morevaluable, a systematic approach
to thinking critically about anyinformation you encounter about

(22:42):
neurodivergent mind.
The information detective methodisn't just about correcting
misconceptions, it's aboutintellectual liberation.
Every time someone makes adefinitive claim about A DHD,
giftedness, sensory processing,or any aspect of
neurodivergence, you now havefive tools ready to deploy.

(23:08):
You will hear the origin storiesbehind the claims.
You will hunt for the missingevidence.
You will follow the incentivetrails that see who benefits
from certain beliefs, and youwill test everything against
your own lived experience andthat of others.
And then you'll decide how youapply what you discover.

(23:32):
That shift from passive consumerto active, well-informed person,
that is your superpower now.
The next time a professionaltells you something definitive
about your brain, you'll knowwhich questions to ask.
When social media algorithmsserve you neurodivergent

(23:53):
content, you will recognize thepatterns of reliable versus
questionable information.
When family members repeat mythsthey've absorbed from outdated
sources, you'll have the toolsto respond with both compassion
and precision.
You are now part of anintellectual rebellion against

(24:16):
the oversimplification andmisinformation that surrounds
neurodivergent lives.
You see beneath the surface.
You understand that there'salways more to discover, that
are always deeper questions toask Welcome to the Club of
Sophisticated InformationConsumers.

(24:36):
The world needs more people likeyou.
People who ask better questions,who dig deeper, who trust their
own experience while remainingcurious about evidence.
And this is a huge step in theright direction.

(24:58):
you've been listening to NeuroRebel, where we transform, how
you think about NeurodivergentMinds, starting with your own.
I'm your host, Anita.
Practice the informationdetective method on one piece of
neurodivergent information youencountered this week.
Apply all five tools and noticehow your relationship with that

(25:22):
information changes.
And send me an email and let meknow how this worked out for
you.
If this episode transformed howyou think about information,
share it with someone who's lostin the wilderness of
neurodivergent misinformation.
Write to us atneurorebelpodcast@gmail.com with
your detective discoveries.

(25:44):
I read every message.
And your insights often sparkfuture episodes.
Follow us on social media forcontinued conversation and
behind the scenes insights.
And if this work adds genuinevalue to your life, consider it
supporting it financiallythrough the links at our
webpage, neurorebelpodcast.comNeuro Rebel exists because this

(26:08):
community believes thatrigorous, sophisticated analysis
of neurodivergence matters.
Remember, your brain isn'tbroken, but the information
ecosystem around you often is.
Together, We are changing that.
One critical question at a time.

(26:28):
Thank you so much for listening.
Until next week, keepinvestigating, keep questioning,
and keep trusting that your mindexactly as it is, is perfectly
capable of seeing through themyths to find the truth
underneath.

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Episode Transcript

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Do Autistic People Feel Empathy? Debunking Research Myths with Critical Thinking Tools

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