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Exteme male brain theory 'unhelpful'

TheCatWoman

Say's Simon Baron Cohen, the man who came up wth the phrase in the first place has said in an interview with the Guardian. He believes that it's not been helpful, or saying that autistic people lack empathy, when what we really have is often problems knowing what people are thinking or feeling from facial expressions, but have no lack of empathy regarding peoples feelings once they know what they are. He has also acknowleged that the terms "male and female" brains dosen't really mean anything.

I'm glad he's said this and I hope it clears up some of the misconceptions about us.

Parents

  • 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.

  • in reply to ArchaeC

    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.)

  • in reply to emanningis

    Seeing as he's made a world wide name for himself on the back of his "ground breaking" work on autism, it's quite a thing to admit that he got anything wrong, so he should be applauded for that, but I agree he does need to go further and clarify what he means. Seeing as many of his ideas formed the basis of modern testing for autism, I they should be reviewed too, I still think the AQ10 test descriminates against women and people who aren't systemisers.

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  • in reply to emanningis

    Seeing as he's made a world wide name for himself on the back of his "ground breaking" work on autism, it's quite a thing to admit that he got anything wrong, so he should be applauded for that, but I agree he does need to go further and clarify what he means. Seeing as many of his ideas formed the basis of modern testing for autism, I they should be reviewed too, I still think the AQ10 test descriminates against women and people who aren't systemisers.

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