Bix dot Blog

A new approach to understanding social cognition in autistic and non-autistic people is gaining empirical support. Research is showing that difficulties in social interaction between autistic and non-autistic people are two way, evidencing a ‘double empathy problem’ (Milton 2012). For example, non-autistic people have difficulty interpreting the behaviour and intentions of autistic people (Sheppard et al. 2016), which can also lead non-autistic people to rate autistic people less favourably (Alkhaldi et al. 2019). Hence, future interventions could focus on helping non-autistic people to more effectively interact with autistic people. Reducing emphasis and pressure for autistic people and those with high autistic traits to camouflage their ‘true self’ could even help prevent risk of developing mental health problems, suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviours (Mitchell et al. 2019), and create a more useful and accurate understanding of autism that values the unique social and communication style of autistic people (Jaswal and Aktar 2018).

—S. A. Cassidy, K. Gould, E. Townsend, M. Pelton, A. E. Robertson, J. Rodger, in “Is Camouflaging Autistic Traits Associated with Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours?”