Author(s): Alexis Gubler (Abney), Samantha Larkins, Katie Rose
Mentor(s): Garrett Cardon
Institution BYU
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social differences and restrictive and repetitive behaviors, that can affect an individual’s sensory, cognitive, and emotional processing. Traditionally, autistic people have been categorized as having deficits in empathy (i.e., inferring the states of another person’s mind). However, according to more recent research, neurotypical (NT) and autistic individuals commonly have mutual misunderstandings, rather than one group, or the other, being deficient. In other words, a NT person has just as much potential to misread an autistic person as an autistic individual might have to misunderstand a NT person. This phenomenon is termed the Double Empathy Problem (DEP). Lack of empathy has the potential to cause great difficulties for all involved (e.g., marginalization, bullying, dehumanization, violence). Unfortunately, we do not understand the underlying mechanisms of the DEP and, therefore, are limited in our ability to overcome it. We hypothesize that the DEP is rooted in differences in perception and cognition between autistic and NT people. We also project that using art as a window into another’s mind (i.e., their perception, cognition, etc.), we can help people of different neurotypes empathize more effectively with one another. Thus, we designed a mixed methods study in which we invited autistic—NT pairs of young adults (6 male/6 female) to: i) complete online questionnaires about basic demographics, autistic traits, empathizing, and art experience; ii) participate in three art museum visits, in which they experienced and journaled about an art piece, and then discussed their impressions of the art with each other; iii) underwent a follow-up interview with our research team about whether their experience resulted in improved empathy between them and their partners, or not. Results revealed differences in initial impressions of the art pieces between autistic and neurotypical people, suggesting distinct sensory processing and/or attentional profiles between autistic and neurotypical people. Triangulated findings regarding empathizing and the effectiveness of art experiences among autistic—neurotypical dyads to facilitate empathy will also be presented. Our results shed light on the origins of the Double Empathy Problem and have the potential to inform our basic understanding of autism, as well as make improvements in educational and clinical procedures, family bonds, and quality of life for autistic individuals and stakeholders who interact with them.