Empathising and systemising in adults with and without Asperger Syndrome

Lawson J, Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S.
Autism Research Centre, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Abstract: Autism Dev Disord. 2004 Jun;34(3):301-10

Findings

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder in which young males often show a lack of empathy, have difficulty in forming relationships, engage in one-sided conversations, and have intense interests in specific topics. Researchers suggest that AS is a form of autism without the delays in language or cognitive development seen in autism. One way researchers define characteristics of autism spectrum disorders is a deficit in Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability of a child to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own. Building on and extending research on ToM Baron-Cohen and colleagues proposed that there are two psychological dimensions 'empathizing' and 'systematizing'. Empathizing is the drive to identify emotions and thoughts of others to respond emotionally. Systemizing is the drive to analyze and build systems such as machines, mathematics, technical techniques, etc. Males are much better at systematizing compared to empathizing, whereas females excel in empathizing. This raises the possibility that autism is an extreme version of the male pattern (the “extreme male brain theory of autism”.
To test this E-S model, Lawson and his colleagues compared 18 males with AS, 44 males without AS, and 45 typically developing females from the general population in two multiple-choice tests: (1) empathizing: the Social Stories Questionnaire (SSQ) containing10 short stories involving blatant or subtle remarks made by one character that could upset another character in the story; and (2) systematizing: The Physical Prediction Questionnaire (PPQ) involves understanding physical systems but was designed to be challenging enough so as to reveal individual differences. For the SSQ empathizing test, females scored significantly higher than males without AS, who in turn scored higher than males with AS. Conversely, on the PPQ systematizing task, females scored significantly lower than both male groups, who did not differ significantly from each other.

Conclusions

The results are in line with the E-S model. On average, males have better systematizing skills than females, females have better empathizing skills, and males with AS have an extreme form of these two skills with lower empathizing and superior systematizing. The researchers conclude that future studies will need to test this pattern of results in more subjects and across a wider set of tests and to test females with ASCs for their empathizing and systemizing abilities.