Autistic adults' perspectives on appropriate empathic responses to others' emotions.

Researchers showed videos of emotional interactions to autistic and non-autistic adults, asking them what would be an appropriate empathic response. Autistic adults gave slightly fewer 'appropriate' responses (as judged by experts), but the difference was small and mainly for basic emotions. The biggest difference was that autistic adults were much less confident in their answers. Overall, autistic adults' ideas about appropriate emotional responses weren't very different from non-autistic adults.

This study examined how autistic and non-autistic adults perceive appropriate empathic responses to others' emotions. Sixty-three autistic and 67 non-autistic adults viewed videos of social interactions and provided their perspectives on appropriate empathic responses. While autistic participants provided fewer responses deemed appropriate by expert panels compared to non-autistic participants, this difference was weak and mainly limited to basic emotions. Notably, autistic individuals showed significantly lower confidence in their responses.

Both groups demonstrated limited metacognitive awareness of response appropriateness. The findings suggest autistic adults' perspectives on empathic responses are not fundamentally different from non-autistic adults, challenging assumptions about empathic responding in autism.

Results suggest interventions should focus on building confidence in empathic responding rather than assuming fundamental empathic deficits. Metacognitive training about emotional appropriateness may benefit both autistic and non-autistic individuals. Clinical assessments should consider confidence levels alongside response accuracy when evaluating empathic abilities.

Single study design without specified methodology. Sample sizes are relatively small. Appropriateness was determined by expert panel interpretations rather than objective measures. Study focused only on responses to non-autistic actors' emotions, which may not reflect real-world interactions with autistic individuals.

Although the ability of autistic adults to recognize others' emotions has been extensively studied, less attention has been given to how they respond to these emotions. We examined two aspects of autistic and non-autistic adults' responsiveness to the emotional expressions of non-autistic actors: their perspectives on the appropriate way of responding to others' emotions and their awareness of others' perceptions of the likely appropriateness of such responses. Autistic (N = 63) and non-autistic (N = 67) adult samples viewed videos of 74 dyadic social interactions displaying different examples of 12 emotions expressed by one actor in response to the behavior of the other. After each video, participants (a) nominated the emotion expressed by the first actor, (b) offered their perspective on what would constitute an appropriate empathic response by the second actor, and (c) indicated their confidence in that response.

Although the autistic group provided fewer appropriate empathic responses-operationalized via a panel's interpretations of normative responses-than the non-autistic group, within-group variability was marked, and the effect was weak and largely confined to basic emotions. Autistic individuals were, however, considerably less confident in their responses. Examination of the relationships between confidence in and the appropriateness of empathic responses provided no indication in either group of reliable discrimination of appropriate from inappropriate empathic responses or finely tuned metacognitive awareness of variations in appropriateness. In sum, autistic adults' perspectives on the appropriate empathic reactions to non-autistic adults' emotions were not unilaterally or markedly different to those of non-autistic adults.