Who introduced the "male brain" theory of autism?

Post Reply New Topic

If it's the general public, then it's irrelevant in scientific discourse and why discuss it at all, except as a misperception by the general public?

That's beside the point, though. Cohen does advocate the "extreme male brain" theory of autism. He is largely responsible for codifying and promoting this theory.

Can someone define 'cognitive empathy' vs ' affective empathy'?

Well, I'm not exactly sure what these terms mean myself, but I'll give defining them a shot.

"Cognitive empathy" is a joining of the words 'cognitive' (thinking about situations based on logical, fact-based evidence) and 'empathy' (being aware of, and trying to identify with, another person's feelings). So perhaps "cognitive empathy" is trying to step into another person's shoes using a logical frame of mind.

On the other hand, "affective empathy" is a joining of the words 'affective' (relating to one's mood state) and 'empathy'. Therefore, "affective empathy" probably means trying to step into somebody else's shoes because you can emotionally relate to the other person.

The SBC definition of empathy (based on his EQ quiz) is really a bunch of things rolled into one. There are questions related to social proclivity and fashion conformity that count towards EQ. It seems the SBC quiz tells us that introverts are less empathetic than extroverts.

Not only that, but Baron-Cohen's tests are designed to get certain results. It's hard to explain, but I could see it the moment that I saw the tests being used. Scoring a certain way on these tests does not say anything about the maleness or the femaleness of a person's brain. It doesn't necessarily say anything about a person's brain at all. And it doesn't necessarily show whether a person is "empathizing" or "systemizing" at all. It takes a lot of assumptions (and Baron-Cohen is really good at manipulating people's assumptions about the world) to go from someone scoring a certain way on these tests, to the person being good at an abstract concept like empathizing or systemizing, to the idea that a person's score on these tests reflects these specific skills in their brain, to the concept that scores on these tests reflect male and female brains. But most people seem to just follow along without questioning a single word of it, and that disturbs me greatly.

And yes, I've read the book he wrote on this topic. I can't remember what it was called. It was very difficult to slog through. And it was very slick with the assumptions being made that most people wouldn't question because of the way he wrote about them. There's a certain way of forming words, that makes it so that a person can embed multiple layers of assumptions behind the words they write, and yet if they write it using certain forms of words, then people will not only not question the assumptions, but take those assumptions on board in their own brain without realizing it. Baron-Cohen is a master of that kind of writing. I find it very disturbing how few people seem to notice or question this.

I don't know who introduced the "exteme male brain " hypothesis in regards to autism, but there might be something to it, since the idea keeps cropping up in these discussions.

I think it was an over simplification to explain communication methods, emotions, etc... And aspie communication(meaning VERBAL here) and emotion, and social skills. It DOES seem more male. But that doesn't change capabilities, or make one more male.

Hmm. Not all autistic people are better at verbal communication than nonverbal. Of course, the very type of Baron-Cohen's research results in an over-selection of people who are better at verbal than non-verbal, and then he generalizes his findings across the entire spectrum whether they fit or not. That's just one of the zillions of teeny little ways that his research involves a lot of small warpings of reality added up together to make a much bigger warping of reality.

That's what I would have thought, too, but wouldn't that mean that people with AS should in theory score higher in cognitive empathy than in affective empathy?

Who introduced the male brain theory of autism?

It was I, ManBrain! who sent this idea into the world.

I read this in Invader Zim's voice.