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Autism and Empathy
Some people say autistic people (people with an Autistic spectrum diagnosis, including Autistic Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, and PDD-NOS) have no empathy, or at least not very much. Others cry "We do so!" I say, autistic people like taking tests online, and that's what matters. (Note: I'm autistic, so I oughtta know.)
The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (28 items) was created specifically to measure four factors related to empathy, and was carefully put through several factor analyses to make sure it does what it's supposed to.
A link to this scale has already been posted in a thread on Wrong Planet. If all you want is your scores, do the test, then don't send the email that it generates. Just copy your scores from the pop up message. If you want me to add your scores to my database, send them in (just send the email). Someday if I get enough data I may post summary data. If your browser/email sends them to me automatically and you don't want them included, let me know. If you don't want to enable javascript or for some reason it doesn't work and you want me to send you scores, copy the scale and your answers into an email (no attachments please!) and send them in and I will get back to you with your scores asap.
Have fun!
Results so far
I've posted a link on two threads so far on Wrong Planet (here and here), the second one after I came across the Rogers et al. (2007) paper, and here is a summary of the data posted on those threads so far as of February 7, 2009.
| Fantasy Scale | Perspective Taking | Empathic Concern | Personal Distress | |||||
| mean | SD | mean | SD | mean | SD | mean | SD | |
| WP women with a formal diagnosis (n=17) |
17.29 | 8.36 | 15.41 | 6.70 | 16.47* | 7.98 | 14.12 | 6.61 |
| WP women informally diagnosed or not sure (n=7) |
16.57 | 5.22 | 11.43** | 3.46 | 13.00* | 6.61 | 15.00 | 5.89 |
| all WP women (n=24) |
17.08 | 7.5 | 14.25** | 6.1 | 15.46*** | 7.6 | 14.38 | 6.3 |
| means reported by Davis (1980) | 18.75 | 17.96 | 21.67 | 12.28 | ||||
| WP men with a formal diagnosis (n=20) |
12.25* | 6.73 | 11.70** | 7.10 | 14.75** | 6.54 | 12.37 | 7.60 |
| WP men informally diagnosed or not sure (n=3) |
18.67 | 5.77 | 12.33 | 4.04 | 14.67 | 5.51 | 18.00 | 3.46 |
| all WP men (n=23) |
13.09 | 6.86 | 11.78** | 6.71 | 14.74** | 6.30 | 13.14* | 7.39 |
| means reported by Davis (1980) | 15.73 | 16.78 | 19.04 | 9.46 | ||||
significantly different from Davis's reported means, *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001
Charts of data so far
References
Kimberley Rogers, Isabel Dziobek, Jason Hassenstab, Oliver T. Wolf, and Antonio Convit, 2007. Who Cares? Revisiting Empathy in Asperger Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 37:709-715.