The DOI matches its Crossref record; 58 of the 58 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Empathy Quotient: An Investigation of Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism, and Normal Sex Differences
Abstract
Empathy is an essential part of normal social functioning, yet there are precious few instruments for measuring individual differences in this domain. In this article we review psychological theories of empathy and its measurement. Previous instruments that purport to measure this have not always focused purely on empathy. We report a new self-report questionnaire, the Empathy Quotient (EQ), for use with adults of normal intelligence. It contains 40 empathy items and 20 filler/control items. On each empathy item a person can score 2, 1, or 0, so the EQ has a maximum score of 80 and a minimum of zero. In Study 1 we employed the EQ with n = 90 adults (65 males, 25 females) with Asperger Syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA), who are reported clinically to have difficulties in empathy. The adults with AS/HFA scored significantly lower on the EQ than n = 90 (65 males, 25 females) age-matched controls. Of the adults with AS/HFA, 81% scored equal to or fewer than 30 points out of 80, compared with only 12% of controls. In Study 2 we carried out a study of n = 197 adults from a general population, to test for previously reported sex differences (female superiority) in empathy. This confirmed that women scored significantly higher than men. The EQ reveals both a sex difference in empathy in the general population and an empathy deficit in AS/HFA.
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“males and females have been shown to use different strategies in emotion paradigms”
From Anterior insular cortex and emotional awareness (2013) · cites this paper as Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004
In the citing paper
“Beyond emotion recognition tests, self-reported evaluations of social interaction capabilities have also been used; for example, the empathy quotient questionnaire [10].”
From A Taxonomy of Social Errors in Human-Robot Interaction (2021) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“Commonly used empathy assessments include the Empathy Quotient [10], the Empathy Scale [76], the Interpersonal Reactivity Index [31], and the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy [113].”
From A Taxonomy of Social Errors in Human-Robot Interaction (2021) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“As noted above, the stereotype that women are the more emotional sex, but also the belief that women are better in dealing with their own and others’ emotions is a prevalent stereotype in the Western world [12].”
From Gender differences in emotion perception and self-reported emotional intelligence: A test of the emotion sensitivity hypothesis (2018) · cites this paper as [12]
In the citing paper
“Empathy plays a central role in successful interpersonal engagement by serving as a means for establishing rapport and building a basis for trustworthy communication (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004).”
From Social functioning in major depressive disorder (2016) · cites this paper as Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004
In the citing paper
“euroimaging and behavioural studies of ToM implicate a core network of neural regions that serve diverse functions, and include cognitive (e.g., DLPFC 19,213,214 ), affective (e.g., mPFC, 215-219 anterior paracingulate cortex 220,221 ) and memory systems (e.g., posterior cingulate, temporal poles; 220 for a review, see McKinnon and colleagues 222 ).”
From Systematic review of the neural basis of social cognition in patients with mood disorders (2012) · cites this paper as [215]
In the citing paper
“In these studies, high-functioning ASD cases scored lower than typical males on measures of empathy and friendship, and higher than typical males on measures of systemizing.”
From Sex differences in autism spectrum disorders (2013) · cites this paper as [61]
In the citing paper
“Early work convincingly demonstrated that typical females score significantly higher on measures of empathizing and value placed on meaningful relationships with others [61,62]”
From Sex differences in autism spectrum disorders (2013) · cites this paper as [61]
In the citing paper
“Evidence suggests that there are sex differences in empathic abilities (e.g., Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004)”
From Oxytocin increases attention to the eyes and selectively enhances self-reported affective empathy for fear (2017) · cites this paper as Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004
In the citing paper
“To control for potential confounding effects from personality traits or mood states, subjects completed Chinese versions of validated psychometric questionnaires before treatment, including the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson et al., 1988), Autism Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), Empathy Quotient (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004), and NEO 5-factor inventory (Costa and”
From Oxytocin facilitates approach behavior to positive social stimuli via decreasing anterior insula activity (2018) · cites this paper as Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004
In the citing paper
“Only female participants were included in Experiments 1 and 2 because of better performance in emotional tasks [53] and higher self-reported empathy in women [54].”
From Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game (2011) · cites this paper as [54]
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- ORCID
- Wheelwright, Sally
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 2004-04
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 163-175
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- OpenAlex
- W1992745256
- Semantic Scholar
- b694cb24ec28fdc5fe07c857f8ec377169ece0ab
- Cited by
- 4,093
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 179 · 2025: 228 · 2024: 222 · 2023: 251 · 2022: 268 · 2021: 303 · 2020: 327 · 2019: 271 · 2018: 267 · 2017: 245 · 2016: 232 · 2015: 243 · 2014: 198 · 2013: 213 · 2012: 171
- FWCI
- 20.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-16-CE28-0004)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- Empathy Quotient, empathy, Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, sex differences, empathy deficits, self-report questionnaire, theory of mind, social cognition, adults
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Autistic Disorder, Empathy, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychological Tests, Psychological Theory, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sex Characteristics, Asperger Syndrome
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