Empathy and Interest Towards an Autistic Person and the Effect of Disclosing the Diagnosis.
Yonat Rum, Shir Genzer, Ofer Golan and 3 others
PMID 40202683WHAT IT FOUND
When an autistic person disclosed their diagnosis, non-autistic listeners understood their emotions more accurately and reported more empathy.
This effect held across students and working adults, though interest in meeting them varied by background.
Key findings
01Listeners who knew the storyteller was autistic scored higher on empathic accuracy for specific emotions and reported greater empathy than those who did not know.
02Autism disclosure increased willingness to work with the autistic person in both STEM students and working adults.
03The effect of disclosure on social interest, such as wanting to meet the storyteller, was significant for non-STEM students and working adults but not for STEM students.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a single autistic storyteller, so results may not generalize to other autistic individuals. Participants were university students or professionals, who may be more accepting of differences than the general population. The interaction was with a pre-recorded video, which may not reflect the complexity of live social interactions. Some effects, particularly in Study 2, were not statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. Self-reported empathy and social interest may be influenced by social desirability, although behavioral empathic accuracy also improved.
Declared interests
Funded by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. No other conflicts declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that disclosure always increases social interest. While empathy and willingness to work together improved across groups, interest in meeting the storyteller did not increase for STEM students in Study 2.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →