Autism, Empathy, and Theory of Mind

[Husseinisdoingfine]

This was a fascinating lecture I watched about the link between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and criminality.

The basics of this lecture was how those with ASD might be more susceptible to criminality due to impaired empathy and theory of mind.  Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand that other people have mental states, like beliefs, knowledge, and intentions. It's a cognitive ability that allows people to make predictions about others' behaviors and explain why they act in certain ways. 

ToM is basically the ability to build accurate mental models of other people's minds, specifically to understand their intentions and how they are feeling. A person with ASD has difficulty doing these things, hence has difficulty socializing, which can lead to social isolation.

Background videos:

 

Main video:

 

[Husseinisdoingfine]

 

Deep dive into his psychological analysis.

[Abe27]

As a person with an Aspergers diagnoses i can really see the resemblence. I am quite slow and have a hard time predicting how people will react to my actions and words, over the years i have become better at it interlectually, but the inituition is really quite weak. but most autistic people seem to be quite people centric and caring of others. The perhaps very opposite spectrum of empathy from a anti social person.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

@Abe27 I felt the same way. I don’t have autism, but I did see personality mirrors with myself and Alek.