Do Measures of Systemizing and Empathizing Reflect Perceptions of Gender Differences in Learning Affordances?

Gender differences in systemizing and empathizing are sometimes attributed to inherent biological factors. We tested whether such effects are more often interpreted as reflecting men's and women's different learning affordances. Study 1 (N = 624) estimated gender differences in item-level activities from systemizing and empathizing scales (SQ, EQ) in large representative samples. Lay coders (Study 2, N = 199) and psychology experts (Study 3, N = 116) rated SQ and EQ activities as being more learned (vs. innate) and believed that men receive more systemizing and women receive more empathizing (Study 3 only) affordances. Items showing the largest gender differences in Study 1 were those rated as having the largest gender affordances (more than gendered genetic advantages) in Studies 2 and 3. Claims about inherent sex differences in systemizing, and to a lesser degree empathizing, appear to be out of step with a consensus view from the public and psychological scientists.

A rule-based theoretical account of social stories to address the double empathy problem

Social Stories™ (SS) is one of the most popular and researched interventions for autistic children. To date, research that focuses on outcomes has been prioritized over the investigation of the psychological mechanisms that inform the intervention. In this article we consider theoretical accounts proposed thus far which could underpin SS. We argue that mechanisms that are based on social deficit theories lack validity, and propose a rule-based theoretical account to inform a strengths-based approach toward conceptualizing the mechanisms that underpin SS. We apply this account to the 'double-empathy problem' to propose that SS can be adapted to involve all parties in the development and delivery of SS support by adopting a rule-based perspective. We use the example of systemizing (the drive to analyze and explore systems in terms of 'if-and-then' rules), which is proposed to be a relative autistic strength, as a form of rule-based thinking that can provide a theoretical account of SS and a framework to address the double-empathy problem.

The Relationships between Self-Reported Motor Functioning and Autistic Traits: The Italian Version of the Adult Developmental Coordination Disorders/Dyspraxia Checklist (ADC)

BACKGROUND

We developed the Italian version of the adult developmental co-ordination disorders/dyspraxia checklist (ADC), providing reliability and concurrent validity data for the scale (Aim 1). In addition, we investigated the relationships between motor coordination difficulties and different autistic traits (Aim 2).

METHODS

498 participants (341 females; age range = 18-34) underwent the Italian version of the ADC, as well as a handwriting speed test, the autism spectrum quotient, the empathy quotient, and the systemizing quotient.

RESULTS

The distinction between three main factors (A, B, and C) identified in the original version of the ADC was confirmed here. Internal consistency of the ADC subscales was adequate, as well as the correlation with the handwriting speed test used to assess concurrent validity. No substantial sex differences on the ADC scores were found. Furthermore, data revealed that poor autistic-related communication skills and lower levels of systemizing tendencies were, among all the investigated autistic traits, those more strongly associated with higher motor coordination difficulties.

CONCLUSIONS

The Italian ADC seems a valuable tool for assessing motor coordination difficulties in adults and can reveal the nuanced impact exerted by different autistic traits on self-reported motor functioning.

Empathizing, systemizing, empathizing-systemizing difference and their association with autistic traits in children with autism spectrum disorder, with and without intellectual disability

Empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference can be linked to autistic traits in the general adult population and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but these profiles and associations remain unclear in children with ASD, with and without intellectual disability (ASD + ID; ASD-noID). We recruited three groups including 160 boys with ASD (73 ASD + ID; 87 ASD-noID) and 99 typically developing (TD) boys (6-12 years). We measured empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference using the parent-reported child Empathy and Systemizing Quotient (EQ-C/SQ-C). We measured autistic traits using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Among the three groups, children with ASD + ID and ASD-noID scored lower on the EQ-C and SQ-C than TD children (all p < 0.001). There was no difference in the EQ-C between children with ASD + ID and ASD-noID (16.59 ± 5.53 vs. 16.23 ± 5.85, p = 0.973), and the difference in the SQ-C attenuated to null when adjusting for intelligence between children with ASD-noID and TD children (18.89 ± 7.80 vs. 24.15 ± 6.73, p = 0.089). Children with ASD + ID scored higher on empathizing-systemizing difference than TD children but lower than children with ASD-noID (all p < 0.05). Negative associations between EQ-C and all autistic traits, null associations between SQ-C and all autistic traits, and positive associations between empathizing-systemizing difference and all autistic traits were found in all groups. We observed differences in empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference and the consistency of their associations with autistic traits among the three groups. Our findings provide implication that behavioral interventions of ASD should consider the balance of empathizing and systemizing. LAY SUMMARY: We examined the profiles of empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference in children with autism spectrum disorder, with and without intellectual disability (ASD + ID; ASD-noID), and typically developing (TD) children aged 6-12 years. We observed differences in these profiles and the consistency of their associations with autistic traits among the three groups. Empathizing and empathizing-systemizing difference, rather than systemizing, were associated with autistic traits within the three groups. Our findings provide implication that behavioral interventions of ASD should consider these imbalance profiles.

Pattern Unifies Autism

Autism is a highly heterogeneous condition, genetically and phenotypically. This diversity of causation and presentation has impeded its definition, recognition, assessment, and treatment. Current diagnostic criteria for autism involve two domains, restricted interests and repetitive behavior (RRBs) and social deficits, whose relationship remains unclear. I suggest that the large suite of traits associated with autism can be usefully conceptualized under the single rubric of "pattern," a term that connects autism with basic brain and cognitive functions and structures its phenotypes within a single theoretical framework. Autism thus involves increases and enhancements to pattern perception, pattern recognition, pattern maintenance, pattern generation, pattern processing, and pattern seeking. RRBs result from increased and imbalanced pattern-related perception and cognition, and social alterations result in part from the usual lack of clear pattern in social interactions, combined with the interference of RRBs with social development. This framework has strong implications for assessment of social and non-social autism-related traits, personalized therapy, and priorities for research.

Empathy, Autistic Tendencies, and Systemizing Tendencies-Relationships Between Standard Self-Report Measures

The aim of the present study was to investigate associations between four highly used self-report measures assessing empathy (measured as both a unidimensional and multidimensional construct), autistic tendencies, and systemizing tendencies. Participants in this study completed the following self-report measures: The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Empathy Quotient (EQ) to measure empathy, and the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R) to assess autistic and systemizing tendencies, respectively. The final sample consisted of N = 1,098 participants (304 males) without a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder, most of whom were university students. The IRI scale "Perspective Taking" and the EQ were negatively related to the AQ in male and female participants, while the IRI scale "Empathic Concern" was negatively related to the AQ in females only. Moreover, the AQ was positively related to the SQ-R in females only. Lastly, the SQ-R and a number of the empathy scales were significantly associated: For example and surprisingly, the EQ correlated weakly and positively with the SQ-R in both male and female participants. The results from this study illustrate how standard self-report measures of empathy, autistic tendencies, and systemizing tendencies are associated with each other in a large sample not diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Additionally, some potential gender-specific effects are revealed.

Testing the Empathizing-Systemizing theory of sex differences and the Extreme Male Brain theory of autism in half a million people

In the largest study to date of autistic traits, we test 10 predictions from the Empathizing–Systemizing (E-S) theory of sex differences and the Extreme Male Brain (EMB) theory of autism. We confirmed that typical females on average are more empathic, typical males on average are more systems-oriented, and autistic people on average show a “masculinized” profile. The strengths of the study are the inclusion of a replication sample and the use of big data. These two theories can be considered to have strong support. We demonstrate that D-scores (difference between E and S) account for 19 times the variance in autistic traits than do other demographic variables, including sex, underscoring the importance of brain types in autism.

The Empathizing–Systemizing (E-S) theory of typical sex differences suggests that individuals may be classified based on empathy and systemizing. An extension of the E-S theory, the Extreme Male Brain (EMB) theory suggests that autistic people on average have a shift towards a more masculinized brain along the E-S dimensions. Both theories have been investigated in small sample sizes, limiting their generalizability. Here we leverage two large datasets (discovery n = 671,606, including 36,648 autistic individuals primarily; and validation n = 14,354, including 226 autistic individuals) to investigate 10 predictions of the E-S and the EMB theories. In the discovery dataset, typical females on average showed higher scores on short forms of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ), and typical males on average showed higher scores on short forms of the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and Systemizing Quotient (SQ). Typical sex differences in these measures were attenuated in autistic individuals. Analysis of “brain types” revealed that typical females on average were more likely to be Type E (EQ > SQ) or Extreme Type E and that typical males on average were more likely to be Type S (SQ > EQ) or Extreme Type S. In both datasets, autistic individuals, regardless of their reported sex, on average were “masculinized.” Finally, we demonstrate that D-scores (difference between EQ and SQ) account for 19 times more of the variance in autistic traits (43%) than do other demographic variables including sex. Our results provide robust evidence in support of both the E-S and EMB theories.

Autism and talent: the cognitive and neural basis of systemizing

In 2003, we proposed the hypersystemizing theory of autism. The theory proposes that the human mind possesses a systemizing mechanism (SM) that helps identify lawful regularities (often causal) that govern the input-operation-output workings of a system. The SM can be tuned to different levels, from low to high, with a normal distribution of individual differences in how strongly people search for such input-operation-out-put regularities in any data that is systemizable. Evidence suggests that people with autism are on average hypersystemizers, scoring higher than average on the systemizing quotient and on performance tests of systemizing. In this article, we consider the neural basis behind the SM, since there has been little consideration of the brain basis of systemizing. Finally, we discuss directions for future work in this field.

Visual systemizing preference in children with autism: A randomized controlled trial of intranasal oxytocin

Several studies have suggested that the neuropeptide oxytocin may enhance aspects of social communication in autism. Little is known, however, about its effects on nonsocial manifestations, such as restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. In the empathizing-systemizing theory of autism, social deficits are described along the continuum of empathizing ability, whereas nonsocial aspects are characterized in terms of an increased preference for patterned or rule-based systems, called systemizing. We therefore developed an automated eye-tracking task to test whether children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to matched controls display a visual preference for more highly organized and structured (systemized) real-life images. Then, as part of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, we examined the effect of intranasal oxytocin on systemizing preferences in 16 male children with ASD, compared with 16 matched controls. Participants viewed 14 slides, each containing four related pictures (e.g., of people, animals, scenes, or objects) that differed primarily on the degree of systemizing. Visual systemizing preference was defined in terms of the fixation time and count for each image. Unlike control subjects who showed no gaze preference, individuals with ASD preferred to fixate on more highly systemized pictures. Intranasal oxytocin eliminated this preference in ASD participants, who now showed a similar response to control subjects on placebo. In contrast, control participants increased their visual preference for more systemized images after receiving oxytocin versus placebo. These results suggest that, in addition to its effects on social communication, oxytocin may play a role in some of the nonsocial manifestations of autism.

Empathizers and systemizers process social information differently

Using the empathizing-systemizing theory as our framework, we investigated how people with high self-reported empathizing (having good social skills and being interested in people) and systemizing (being interested in physical things and processes) differ in the social information processing of emotionally negative photographs of people during "spontaneous watching" and emotional and cognitive empathy tasks. Empathizers evaluated the pictures as more emotionally touching and the reactions in the photographs more understandable than the systemizers. Compared to the empathizers, systemizers had stronger activations in the posterior cingulate cortex, an area related to cognitive empathy, as well as in the left superior temporal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus when watching emotional photographs spontaneously. During guided emotional and cognitive empathy tasks, these differences disappeared. However, during the emotional empathy task, higher systemizing was associated with weaker activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus /insula. Furthermore, during emotional and cognitive empathy tasks, empathizing was related to increased activations of the amygdala which were in turn related to higher behavioral ratings of emotional and cognitive empathy. The results suggest that empathizers and systemizers engage in social information processing differently: systemizers in more cognitive terms and empathizers with stronger automatic emotional reactions.

Some Alternatives? Event-Related Potential Investigation of Literal and Pragmatic Interpretations of Some Presented in Isolation

In sentence verification tasks involving under-informative statements such as Some elephants are mammals, some adults appear more tolerant to pragmatic violations than others. The underlying causes of such inter-individual variability remain however essentially unknown. Here, we investigated inter-individual variation in adults deriving the scalar inference “not all” triggered by the quantifier some. We first assessed the individual intolerance to pragmatic violations in adult participants presented with under-informative some-statements (e.g., Some infants are young). We then recorded event-related brain potentials in the same participants using an oddball paradigm where an ambiguous deviant word some presented in isolation had to be taken either as a match (in its literal interpretation “at least some”) or as a mismatch (in its pragmatic interpretation “some but not all”) and where an unambiguous deviant target word all was featured as control. Mean amplitude modulation of the classic P3b provided a measure of the ease with which participants considered some and all as deviants within each experimental block. We found that intolerance to pragmatic violations was associated with a reduction in the magnitude of the P3b effect elicited by the target some when it was to be considered a literal match. Furthermore, we failed to replicate a straightforward literal interpretation facilitation effect in our experiment which offers a control for task demands. We propose that the derivation of scalar inferences also relies on general, but flexible, mismatch resolution processes.

Intuitive and Deliberative Empathizers and Systemizers

OBJECTIVE

Recent findings suggest there may be some overlap between individual differences in orientations for intuitive thinking and empathizing, and between deliberative thinking and systemizing. This overlap is surprising, given that intuitive and deliberative thinking derive from dual-process theories that concern domain-general types of processing, whereas theoretically, empathizing and systemizing are domain-specific orientations for understanding people and lawful physical phenomena.

METHOD

The present studies (Study 1: N = 2,789, Study 2: N = 87; Finnish volunteers ages 15-69, 65% females) analyzed each of these four constructs using self-report as well as performance measures.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis showed that systemizing was strongly and positively related to deliberative thinking and negatively related to intuitive thinking. Empathizing was negatively related to deliberative thinking, whereas no association between empathizing and intuition was found. However, some deliberative aspects and some intuitive aspects were involved in empathizing.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicate that a distinction between "intuitive empathizing" and "deliberative systemizing" is not warranted.

Systemizers Are Better Code-Breakers: Self-Reported Systemizing Predicts Code-Breaking Performance in Expert Hackers and Naïve Participants

Studies on hacking have typically focused on motivational aspects and general personality traits of the individuals who engage in hacking; little systematic research has been conducted on predispositions that may be associated not only with the choice to pursue a hacking career but also with performance in either naïve or expert populations. Here, we test the hypotheses that two traits that are typically enhanced in autism spectrum disorders—attention to detail and systemizing—may be positively related to both the choice of pursuing a career in information security and skilled performance in a prototypical hacking task (i.e., crypto-analysis or code-breaking). A group of naïve participants and of ethical hackers completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient, including an attention to detail scale, and the Systemizing Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001, 2003). They were also tested with behavioral tasks involving code-breaking and a control task involving security X-ray image interpretation. Hackers reported significantly higher systemizing and attention to detail than non-hackers. We found a positive relation between self-reported systemizing (but not attention to detail) and code-breaking skills in both hackers and non-hackers, whereas attention to detail (but not systemizing) was related with performance in the X-ray screening task in both groups, as previously reported with naïve participants (Rusconi et al., 2015). We discuss the theoretical and translational implications of our findings.

Children with autism spectrum disorder have an exceptional explanatory drive

An "explanatory drive" motivates children to explain ambiguity. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders are interested in how systems work, but it is unknown whether they have an explanatory drive. We presented children with and without autism spectrum disorder unsolvable problems in a physical and in a social context and evaluated problem-solving and explanation-seeking responses. In the physical context (but not the social context), the children with autism spectrum disorder showed a stronger explanatory drive than controls. Importantly, the number of explanatory behaviors made by children with autism spectrum disorder in the social context was independent of social and communicative impairments. Children with autism spectrum disorder did not show an exceptional explanatory drive in the social domain. These results suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder have an explanatory drive and that the explanatory drive may be domain specific.

Autism spectrum traits in normal individuals: a preliminary VBM analysis

In light of the new DSM-5 autism spectrum disorders diagnosis in which the autism spectrum reflects a group of neurodevelopmental disorders existing on a continuum from mild to severe expression of autistic traits, and recent empirical findings showing a continuous distribution of autistic traits in the general population, our voxel based morphometry study compares normal individuals with high autistic traits to normal individuals with low autistic traits. We hypothesize that normal individuals with high autistic traits in terms of empathizing and systemizing [high systemizing (HS)/low empathizing (LE)] share brain irregularities with individuals that fall within the clinical autism spectrum disorder. We find differences in several social brain network areas between our groups. Specifically, we find increased gray matter (GM) volume in the orbitofrontal cortex, the cuneus, the hippocampus and parahippocampus and reduced GM volume in the inferior temporal cortex, the insula, and the amygdala in our HS/LE individuals relative to our HE/LS (low autistic traits in terms of empathizing and systemizing) individuals.

Motion, identity and the bias toward agency

The well-documented human bias toward agency as a cause and therefore an explanation of observed events is typically attributed to evolutionary selection for a "social brain". Based on a review of developmental and adult behavioral and neurocognitive data, it is argued that the bias toward agency is a result of the default human solution, developed during infancy, to the computational requirements of object re-identification over gaps in observation of more than a few seconds. If this model is correct, overriding the bias toward agency to construct mechanistic explanations of observed events requires structure-mapping inferences, implemented by the pre-motor action planning system, that replace agents with mechanisms as causes of unobserved changes in contextual or featural properties of objects. Experiments that would test this model are discussed.

Creativity measured by divergent thinking is associated with two axes of autistic characteristics

Creativity generally involves the conception of original and valuable ideas, and it plays a key role in scientific achievement. Moreover, individuals with autistic spectrum conditions (ASCs) tend to achieve in scientific fields. Recently, it has been proposed that low empathizing and high systemizing characterize individuals with ASCs. Empathizing is the drive to identify the mental status of other individuals and respond to it with an appropriate emotion; systemizing is the drive to analyze a system. It has been proposed that this higher systemizing underlies the scientific achievement of individuals with ASCs, suggesting the possible positive association between creativity and systemizing. However, previous findings on the association between ASCs and creativity were conflicting. Conversely, previous studies have suggested an association between prosocial traits and creativity, indicating the possible association between empathizing and creativity. Here we investigated the association between creativity measured by divergent thinking (CDT) and empathizing, systemizing, and the discrepancy between systemizing and empathizing, which is called D score. CDT was measured using the S-A creativity test. The individual degree of empathizing (empathizing quotient, EQ) and that of systemizing (systemizing quotient, SQ), and D score was measured via a validated questionnaire (SQ and EQ questionnaires). The results showed that higher CDT was significantly and positively correlated with both the score of EQ and the score of SQ but not with D score. These results suggest that CDT is positively associated with one of the characteristics of ASCs (analytical aspects), while exhibiting a negative association with another (lower social aspects). Therefore, the discrepancy between systemizing and empathizing, which is strongly associated with autistic tendency, was not associated with CDT.

Testing the extreme male brain theory of autism spectrum disorder in a familial design

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may be an extreme manifestation of some male-typical traits in both neuroanatomy and cognition. Using the ratio of the second to fourth digit (2D:4D) and digit length as biomarkers of (pre- and postnatal) testosterone levels, examined was whether hypermasculinized digit ratios and/or lengths were familial traits in ASD and investigated their relation to sexually dimorphic cognitive abilities. 2D:4D ratios and digit lengths of 216 children with ASD, 202 unaffected siblings, and 360 parents were compared with those of 174 control children and their 146 parents. Generalized Estimation Equations, Generalized Linear Models, and Linear Mixed Models were used to investigate parent-offspring relationships and group differences. In ASD probands and their relatives alike, digit length relative to overall height was significantly increased in comparison to controls. No significant group differences were found between affected and unaffected subjects, or between males and females. Additionally, 2D:4D ratios increased with age. No (consistent) associations were found between 2D:4D ratio or digit lengths and systemizing and empathizing skills. The findings emphasize the role of familially based elevated pre- and postnatal testosterone levels in the liability for ASD, but challenge the use of 2D:4D ratio as a proxy of prenatal testosterone exposure solely. Given that many genes influence digit length, the exact mechanisms underlying a familial predisposition toward increased digit length in ASD are as yet unknown and needs to be explored in future studies.

From one extreme to the other: negative evaluation anxiety and disordered eating as candidates for the extreme female brain

Simon Baron-Cohen pioneered the idea that different brain types evolved to process information in gender specific ways. Here we expand this approach to looking at eating disorders as a byproduct of the extreme female brain. The incidence of eating disorders is higher among females, and recent findings show that hormones may play a role in eating disorders. We present new evidence from four studies that both an empathizing bias and hyper-mentalizing (as measures of the extreme female brain; EFB) are related to disordered eating and negative evaluation anxiety in women. We also advance the novel hypothesis that concerns about animal welfare (a unique expression of the EFB) may account for the relationship between vegetarianism and eating disorders.

Individual differences in brain structure underpin empathizing-systemizing cognitive styles in male adults

Individual differences in cognitive style can be characterized along two dimensions: 'systemizing' (S, the drive to analyze or build 'rule-based' systems) and 'empathizing' (E, the drive to identify another's mental state and respond to this with an appropriate emotion). Discrepancies between these two dimensions in one direction (S>E) or the other (E>S) are associated with sex differences in cognition: on average more males show an S>E cognitive style, while on average more females show an E>S profile. The neurobiological basis of these different profiles remains unknown. Since individuals may be typical or atypical for their sex, it is important to move away from the study of sex differences and towards the study of differences in cognitive style. Using structural magnetic resonance imaging we examined how neuroanatomy varies as a function of the discrepancy between E and S in 88 adult males from the general population. Selecting just males allows us to study discrepant E-S profiles in a pure way, unconfounded by other factors related to sex and gender. An increasing S>E profile was associated with increased gray matter volume in cingulate and dorsal medial prefrontal areas which have been implicated in processes related to cognitive control, monitoring, error detection, and probabilistic inference. An increasing E>S profile was associated with larger hypothalamic and ventral basal ganglia regions which have been implicated in neuroendocrine control, motivation and reward. These results suggest an underlying neuroanatomical basis linked to the discrepancy between these two important dimensions of individual differences in cognitive style.

Conceptualizing the autism spectrum in terms of natural selection and behavioral ecology: the solitary forager hypothesis

This article reviews etiological and comparative evidence supporting the hypothesis that some genes associated with the autism spectrum were naturally selected and represent the adaptive benefits of being cognitively suited for solitary foraging. People on the autism spectrum are conceptualized here as ecologically competent individuals that could have been adept at learning and implementing hunting and gathering skills in the ancestral environment. Upon independence from their mothers, individuals on the autism spectrum may have been psychologically predisposed toward a different life-history strategy, common among mammals and even some primates, to hunt and gather primarily on their own. Many of the behavioral and cognitive tendencies that autistic individuals exhibit are viewed here as adaptations that would have complemented a solitary lifestyle. For example, the obsessive, repetitive and systemizing tendencies in autism, which can be mistakenly applied toward activities such as block stacking today, may have been focused by hunger and thirst toward successful food procurement in the ancestral past. Both solitary mammals and autistic individuals are low on measures of gregariousness, socialization, direct gazing, eye contact, facial expression, facial recognition, emotional engagement, affiliative need and other social behaviors. The evolution of the neurological tendencies in solitary species that predispose them toward being introverted and reclusive may hold important clues for the evolution of the autism spectrum and the natural selection of autism genes. Solitary animals are thought to eschew unnecessary social contact as part of a foraging strategy often due to scarcity and wide dispersal of food in their native environments. It is thought that the human ancestral environment was often nutritionally sparse as well, and this may have driven human parties to periodically disband. Inconsistencies in group size must have led to inconsistencies in the manner in which natural selection fashioned the social minds of humans, which in turn may well be responsible for the large variation in social abilities seen in human populations. This article emphasizes that individuals on the autism spectrum may have only been partially solitary, that natural selection may have only favored subclinical autistic traits and that the most severe cases of autism may be due to assortative mating.