Double Empathy Problem

The double empathy problem is a psychological and sociological theory first coined in 2012 by Damian Milton, an autistic autism researcher. It proposes that many of the difficulties autistic people face when socializing with non-autistic people stem in part from a mismatch and a lack of mutual understanding between the two groups, so that most autistic people struggle to understand and empathize with non-autistic people while most non-autistic people likewise struggle to understand and empathize with autistic people, a mismatch the theory traces to bidirectional differences in communication style, social-cognitive characteristics and experience between the two groups rather than treating it as an inherent deficit on either side; the theory holds it is the mutual responsibility of both autistic and non-autistic people to overcome this two-way empathy and communication gap. Where earlier research mostly found evidence of this mismatch effect, some more recent studies have also found matching effects between autistic individuals themselves, with mixed but partly supportive evidence that most autistic people can socialize and communicate effectively, build rapport and show social reciprocity with other autistic people, including a 2025 systematic review of 52 papers finding that autistic-autistic interactions were generally linked to better mental health, emotional wellbeing and overall quality of life. These findings challenge the earlier and once widely held theory of mind-blindness proposed by the autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen in the mid-1990s, which held that empathy and theory of mind are universally impaired in autistic people; Baron-Cohen has since acknowledged the double empathy theory and its supporting findings favorably in several research articles, and co-authored a 2017 paper with Milton describing the problem of mutual incomprehension between autistic and non-autistic people.