Exteme male brain theory 'unhelpful'

Excerpt: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661302019046

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/05/autism-extreme-male-brain-simon-baron-cohen

Even though the extreme brain theory is widely considered to be history, I’m glad Baron-Cohen has expressed his regrets over the terminology. It sounds like he still backs up the science of his theory which categorises the autistic brain with the male brain, by association of behaviours, which don’t correspond to genders.

I think he could have elaborated on what he originally meant because he doesn’t reject his science, other than saying the terms he used were misunderstood.

Excerpt: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661302019046

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/05/autism-extreme-male-brain-simon-baron-cohen

Even though the extreme brain theory is widely considered to be history, I’m glad Baron-Cohen has expressed his regrets over the terminology. It sounds like he still backs up the science of his theory which categorises the autistic brain with the male brain, by association of behaviours, which don’t correspond to genders.

I think he could have elaborated on what he originally meant because he doesn’t reject his science, other than saying the terms he used were misunderstood.

I think someone who thinks only men systemise has never run a home and family, you need to be highly organised to do it properly. I wonder if this is another bit of the patriarchy coming out, men systemise, whereas women mearly organise. I've always had the impression that Baron Cohen dosen't really like women that much

Thanks for the links. An open version of the paper is at washington.edu.

------

From the paper I interpret that he claims:

• That autism can be characterised as "more of a systemiser than an empathiser" brain.
• The word "male" was there because systemising --he claims-- is more common in males.

I suppose the problems are:

•  If this systemising shift happens in all groups (not just males), the emphasis on male-brain can be unhelpful / misleading.
• Also, empathising was also refined to cognitive empathy, I think.

-----

From the Guardian article, I also take he still backs the scientific theory and results, just not the name and maybe some of the framing.

Whether the evidence still supports the theory, I don't know. (But my intuition is that the whole theory should be revised.)