Feeling, caring, knowing: different types of empathy deficit in boys with psychopathic tendencies and autism spectrum disorder

Alice P Jones,Essi Viding,Francesca Gilbert,Stephanie Burnett,Francesca G.E Happé

doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02280.x

Abstract

BackgroundEmpathy dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, but it is also sometimes thought to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Individuals with either condition can appear uncaring towards others. This study set out to compare and contrast directly boys with psychopathic tendencies and boys with ASD on tasks assessing aspects of affective empathy and cognitive perspective taking. The main aim of the study was to assess whether a distinct profile of empathy deficits would emerge for boys with psychopathic tendencies and ASD, and whether empathy deficits would be associated with conduct problems in general, rather than psychopathic tendencies or ASD specifically.MethodsFour groups of boys aged between 9 and 16 years (N = 96) were compared: 1) psychopathic tendencies, 2) ASD, 3) conduct problems and 4) comparison. Tasks were included to probe attribution of emotions to self, empathy for victims of aggression and cognitive perspective-taking ability.ResultsBoys with psychopathic tendencies had a profile consistent with dysfunctional affective empathy. They reported experiencing less fear and less empathy for victims of aggression than comparison boys. Their cognitive perspective-taking abilities were not statistically significantly different from those of comparison boys. In contrast, boys with ASD had difficulties with tasks requiring cognitive perspective taking, but reported emotional experiences and victim empathy that were in line with comparison boys. Boys with conduct problems did not differ from comparison boys, suggesting that the affective empathy deficit seen in boys with psychopathic tendencies was specific to that group, rather than common to all boys with conduct problems.ConclusionsAlthough both groups can appear uncaring, our findings suggest that the affective/information processing correlates of psychopathic tendencies and ASD are quite different. Psychopathic tendencies are associated with difficulties in resonating with other people’s distress, whereas ASD is characterised by difficulties in knowing what other people think.

Highlights

Empathy dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, but it is sometimes thought to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
This was the first study to demonstrate that the types of ‘empathy deficit’ characteristic of psychopathic tendencies and ASD are specific to each psychopathology, and that these ‘empathy deficits’ are not shared with boys who have conduct problems without callous-unemotional traits
This measure provides us with only an insight into this particular form of affective empathy deficit, it is notable that this deficit in boys with psychopathic tendencies was apparent for the deliberate instrumental aggression scenarios

Summary

Introduction

Empathy dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, but it is sometimes thought to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study set out to compare and contrast directly boys with psychopathic tendencies and boys with ASD on tasks assessing aspects of affective empathy and cognitive perspective taking. Results: Boys with psychopathic tendencies had a profile consistent with dysfunctional affective empathy. They reported experiencing less fear and less empathy for victims of aggression than comparison boys. Their cognitive perspective-taking abilities were not statistically significantly different from those of comparison boys. Boys with ASD had difficulties with tasks requiring cognitive perspective taking, but reported emotional experiences and victim empathy that were in line with comparison boys.

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