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The Documentary Podcast
Autism, empathy and psychopaths
The Documentary Podcast
May 15, 2025

Autistic people have been thought to all lack empathy by both science and society for decades. But after receiving an extremely low empathy score as part of a recent autism assessment, science journalist Sue Nelson decided to confront these damaging stereotypes and question the experts who work in this area. Sue’s investigation reveals latest research shows the opposite of the commonly held stereotype. Instead of the majority of autistic people having low to no empathy, a trait commonly associated with psychopaths, many autistic people have been shown to have heightened empathy for others. Guests include Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a pioneer in the field who originated the EQ (Empathy Quotient) test widely used in autism assessments, and a team of autistic researchers investigating the newly recognised phenomenon of autistic ‘hyper-empathy’.

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Presenter: Faranak Amidi. Producer: Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson

Presented by Faranak Amidi.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)


26min 29sec



Autism, empathy and psychopaths

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