There is a stereotype that people with autism lack empathy and are unable to recognize feelings and emotions, but is this really true? A group of researchers from the United Kingdom looked into the overlap between autism and alexithymia, a personality trait defined by having difficulty understanding feelings and/or identifying one’s own emotions. They had four groups of individuals (with alexithymia, with autism, with both conditions, and with neither conditions) on an emotion recognition test. Results found that only alexithymia is associated with problems in emotion recognition, but not autism.

Read the full article in Scientific American here!