Definition
The double empathy problem (DEP) refers to a “disjuncture in reciprocity between two differently disposed social actors” who hold different norms and expectations of each other, such as is common in autistic to non-autistic social interactions (Milton 2012: 884). With different dispositional outlooks and personal conceptual understandings, interactions involving autistic and non-autistic people are susceptible to frequent misunderstandings. It is a “double problem” as both people experience it, and so it is not a singular problem located in any one person. However “the disjuncture may be more severe for the non-autistic disposition as it is experienced as unusual, while for the ‘autistic person’ it is a common experience.” (Milton 2012: 885).
In principal, the DEP becomes more marked the wider the disjuncture in dispositional perceptions of what constitutes the social context. It is suggested that “social subtext is never fully given as a set of a prioricircumstances, but...
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Milton, D.E.M., Heasman, B., Sheppard, E. (2018). Double Empathy. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102273-1
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Double Empathy- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102273-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102273-1