Diarmuid Verrier

Background: There is a dominant discourse, both in clinical texts and throughout the academic literature, that autistic people lack empathy; however, over the past decade, both clinicians and academics have increasingly rejected deficit-based descriptions of autism in favor of more nuanced explanations of the experience of autistic individuals in a social world. Methods: This study asked 76 autistic individuals about their own experience of empathy and the oft-cited empathy deficit. Data were thematically analyzed and revealed a wide array of empathic self-concepts among respondents. Results: Notably, there was a high proportion of hyper-empathic experiences. Many respondents reported their empathic responses to be overwhelming, or even distressing. These different experiences of empathy contrast with societal expectations of empathy, which often result in additional labor for autistic people as they navigate the non-autistic centered world. Conclusion: Although the academic literature is, in some areas, slowly moving away from a deficit perspective, more broadly there is still a negative impact from misconceptions around autistic people and empathy. Further work needs to be done to not only explore this misconception at a societal (rather than academic) level, but also better bridge the gap around the changing ideas of empathy and real-world understanding of autistic empathy. Community brief Why is this an important issue? There is a stereotype that autistic people lack empathy, which can potentially lead to negative perceptions and biased behaviors. This stereotype has roots in earlier academic literature around autism. However, although this literature has become more nuanced over time, the stereotype persists among the general population. What is the purpose of this study? This study directly asked autistic people about their own experience of empathy and of the empathy deficit narrative to provide a richer description than is afforded by traditional studies that typically use questionnaire measures. What did the researchers do? We asked a diverse group of 76 autistic adults to tell us how they experience empathy and what their views were of the autistic empathy deficit narrative via an online survey. These data were then analyzed, and themes created, using qualitative content analysis. What were the results of the study? The first theme, heterogeneity of empathic experiences, captured the diverse ways in which autistic people experience empathy. Some did report a lack of empathy, whereas others did not, and some reported experiencing extreme emotional responses (hyper-empathy). The second theme, empathy as an effortful process, captured some of the challenges experienced during the empathy process and the strategies used to overcome these. The third theme, conditional empathy, captured the features of others that made it more or less likely that empathy would be experienced. Some participants found it easier to empathize with close others, animals, and other autistic people. The fourth theme, challenging the empathy deficit narrative, captured participants' perspectives on the empathy deficit narrative, which ranged from firm agreement to firm disagreement, and the perception of harm that comes from this narrative, such as interpersonal prejudice or poor clinical practice. What do these findings add to what was already known? Previous quantitative studies using self-report measures have found various differences in empathy between autistic and non-autistic people. This study added qualitative nuance to these findings; described diverse lived experiences of empathy among autistic people, particularly in relation to hyper-empathic experiences; and articulated the resistance of autistic people to the harmful stereotypes that are based on the empathy deficit narrative. What are potential weaknesses in the study? Due to our recruitment method, the participant sample included only those who were engaged in active online autism communities. As such, the findings here may be limited in terms of how well they capture a broad range of experiences. In addition, although an online survey allowed data collection from a relatively large number of people for a qualitative study, it also meant that, unlike more typical qualitative data collection methods, it was not possible to ask participants to elaborate or to clarify their views. How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future? We hope that this study highlights the need for greater attention to the experience of empathy in autistic people. Articulation of these issues may help autistic people reflect on their own experiences and feel “seen.” Simultaneously, education at a societal level is needed to increase awareness of these issues and reduce dehumanization, stereotyping, and prejudice among non-autistic people.

Introduction: Emotional eating is an impulsive mood-regulation strategy that often follows psychological distress. Mindfulness is associated with less impulsive behaviour. Mindful eating involves a considered awareness of hunger and satiety, and conscious, non-automatic, food choices. This study examines the moderatingMaterial and methods: Participants (N = 392) completed self-report measures on distress, mindfulness and emotional eating, after which moderation analysis was carried out.Results: Mindfulness was negatively associated with emotional eating, but only when distress was low. The most important facets of mindfulness for this were being able to describe one’s emotional state and a non-judgemental response to that state.Conclusions: These results support previous findings that mindfulness reduces the impact distress has on emotional eating. Future research could explore interventions that enable individuals to describe their emotional state in the moment to reduce preoccupation with food during times of distress.

The emergence of social media has revolutionized communication and has had a profound effect on many aspects of motherhood. Image-centric social media, despite its overwhelming popularity, has faced much criticism for over-idealistic portrayals and the pressures it may place on women throughout pregnancy and the early years of their child’s life. This research aimed to determine whether a significant relationship exists between postnatal anxiety and Instagram usage in mothers with young children. The associational, cross-sectional design uses a sample of 210 mothers, aged 22–45, who have one or more children aged under 5 years. An online questionnaire measured anxiety, Instagram usage, and several potentially moderating traits. We found that the relationship between anxiety and online engagement with InstaMums – mothers made famous by Instagram – was moderated by both social comparison orientation and self-esteem. Engagement with InstaMums was associated with greater anxiety in those with higher social comparison orientation; it was also associated with greater anxiety in those with lower self-esteem. These findings are discussed in connection with social comparison theory, implications for healthy social media use, as well as avenues for future research.

Evidence suggests that children’s abilities to comprehend information can vary, which may lead to miscommunication and impact on future life outcomes. Previous research suggests that visual literacy interventions may be helpful for children who need to interpret visual sources of information. Recently there has been renewed interest in the potential of comics as assistive tools in pedagogical settings, which are a highly visual medium. However, no research has yet investigated whether a visual literacy intervention can assist children in their comprehension of comics. The current experiment set out to determine if a visual literacy intervention constructed around comics would improve comprehension of educational comics in primary school children. The study consisted of a pre- and post-intervention procedure. Previous comic reading experience was included as a variable. In each session, comprehension and inferential understanding was assessed. Both comprehension and inferential understanding improved following the comics literacy intervention. These results demonstrate that visual literacy instruction can enhance comprehension of educational comics. Findings can be applied to educational settings and have the potential for improving educational outcomes.

Background The potential role of autism as a moderator of conformity has recently been investigated by a small number of studies. However, as yet, no consensus has emerged as to whether autism or autistic traits can moderate the degree to which people attend to and are influenced by social...

Academic buoyancy (AB) is the ability to overcome minor academic setbacks. However, although it seems as though teachers would be well placed to comment on this characteristic in students, no teacher-report measure of AB exists. This study evaluates a teacher-report version of the widely used, student-report, Academic Buoyancy Scale (ABS). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the unifactorial nature of the Teacher Academic Buoyancy Scale (TABS), and the scale showed excellent internal reliability. However, while there was some evidence for the criterion-related validity of the TABS, it showed very poor convergent validity with the ABS. It also correlated better with academic achievement than should theoretically be the case for a measure of AB. Further, AB estimates from the two measures were moderated by demographic characteristics: teachers rated girls and those not facing adversity as more buoyant, but the opposite was the case for self-reports. In sum, this study suggests a significant disjunction between teacher- and self-reports of AB, and that teacher estimates of AB are likely to be affected by salient, non-AB-related, student characteristics.

The nature of qualitative research means that the personal values of an individual researcher can and do (unwittingly) shape the way in which they analyse data sets, and the resultant conclusions drawn. However this phenomenon is under-studied in social research and this article seeks to help rectify this. This article presents findings from a small research project focused on discourses of class, masculinity and work among British male comedians from working-class backgrounds, interviewed on the popular BBC Radio 4 radio programme Desert Island Discs. Six different researchers, from varying disciplinary, methodological and theoretical groundings, as well as from varying personal backgrounds, analysed three interview recordings and transcripts separately. All the researchers wrote up their individual analyses of these interviews and wrote reflexive pieces examining why they thought they approached the data as they did. The researchers then came together as a group to compare and contrast findings and approaches. The results from this study, including the discrepancies and distinctions and final group analysis, are reported alongside a thorough discussion of the project’s methodology. We find that the project evidenced how a diverse research team can bring out deeper and richer analyses, and was a refreshing way to try and answer questions of individual and collective positionality

Perhaps surprisingly, given the importance of conformity as a theoretical construct in social psychology and the profound implications autism has for social function, little research has been done on whether autism is associated with the propensity to conform to a social majority. This study is a modern, child-friendly implementation of the classic Asch conformity studies. The performance of 15 children with autism was compared to that of 15 typically developing children on a line judgement task. Children were matched for age, gender and numeracy and literacy ability. In each trial, the child had to say which of three lines a comparison line matched in length. On some trials, children were misled as to what most people thought the answer was. Children with autism were much less likely to conform in the misleading condition than typically developing children. This finding was replicated using a continuous measure of autism traits, the Autism Quotient questionnaire, which showed that autism traits negatively correlated with likelihood to conform in the typically developing group. This study demonstrates the resistance of children with autism to social pressure.