Interview With Simon Baron Cohen - Need Your Help

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So... I've got yet another interview in the works. I received word today that Simon Baron Cohen has agreed to allow me to interview him for the homepage of Wrong Planet. There is plenty of time for you guys to offer suggestions.

I'm confident that most of the members here are familiar with Cohen's work. So, if you could ask him a question, what would it be?

I will compile a list of the most suitable questions, and use his answers for a story on the homepage!

You better put your thinking caps on if you want to stump Simon Baron Cohen!

Do you realize that some aspies have meltdowns when they are told they lack empathy?

Or:

How would you feel if you were told that you are incapable of having empathy?

Or something like that. Honestly I think these are way too blunt to be used effectively, but I think turning the tables like this and forcing him into his own theory would mean something.

I would like to know which deficits in the NT brain cause NTs to lack empathy with autistic people and be mindblind to autistic people. Why are NTs so deficient at attributing mental states to autistic people and reading the non-verbal cues of autistic people?

Also: "Why did you mistakenly state that Kim Peak had Autism in you book The Science of Evil. "

I would ask him when he says we lack empathy does he mean overall or just in expressing it?

I have lacked empathy before because of a lack of theory of mind but I have learnt it but still find it very difficult to share my feelings or show people that I empathise with them, and when I really try hard it comes out like a bad actor just reading lines.

And when in a stressful sensory environment I tend to overlook it. Is that right word to use, overlook? My brain feels like it has been through a tumble dryer for the past two days.

I have not read his books.

From the reviews and excerpts I have read, it seems that he uses the word "sympathy" a lot, such as in saying that Aspergers lack empathy but possess sympathy.

Sympathy is not a scientific term. The correct term for what is generally referred to as "sympathy" is "affective empathy," which Aspergers are thought to have in excess of the general population.¹ If he is writing a work on the science of empathy, why is he using nonscientific and misleading terminology?

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¹ Rogers K, Dziobek I, Hassenstab J, Wolf OT, Convit A. Who cares? Revisiting empathy in Asperger syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord. 2007 Apr;37(4):709-15.

Lol, deja-vu Tambourine-Man!


I would ask him to think up a new word to describe us instead of telling people that we lack empathy, it's giving us a bad name.

I can't think of a particular question to ask, but I'd be interested in there being a question about the prenatal testosterone theory.

My mind blanks on the question element.

One thing I am curious about is whether he is aware of and his reaction to research that indicates that people with BPD apparently have more affective empathy than most, which ties into their reading too much into what others say, as well as incorrect interpretations of others' motives and actions. Since he listed BPD as a zero empathy condition, that is. But that's not an autism-based question.

I posted a question here but I don't know what became of it. I'll repeat my question here anyway:

I would like to know if Simon is aware of the prevalence (either anecdotally, from personal experience or studies) of adults initially considered to not have clinically significant impairment whose situation later changes (eg: loss of relatively Aspie-friendly job, partner/spouse leaving, birth of children) to one where their same personality/neurology does cause clinically significant impairment, and if the apparently situational nature of the diagnostic process for a genetic neurological condition bothers him as a scientist.

In an interview with Kim Wombles for Science2.0, Simon Baron-Cohen said "[E]mpathy goes hand-in-hand with self-awareness, or imagining how others see you, and it is in this very area that people with autism struggle." Many people with Aspergers believe they have very high self-awareness, but would define it as knowledge of their own motives - the stuff NTs see therapists for - rather than knowing their position within the group. Does Simon think this fundamental difference in definition of 'self-awareness' might imply an equally fundamental difference in understanding of empathy?


http://www.science20.com/countering_tac ... lity-79669

TM, SBC's theories are amateurish, inconsistent, unresearched, self-serving junk science of the most parasitic kind, so if you can ask the right questions you cause him the equivalent of a meltdown. Do your research on this one; a puff piece won't impress anyone. Buttering up Autism Speaks was smart politics, but with SBC you can be totally honest. Some of the questions above are excellent and blunt in a good way. Also check out the negative reviews of his last book: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Evil-Empa ... addTwoStar

He did publicity interviews for dozens of papers and (iirc) only one of them bothered to point out flaws. TM, you can do a good job here or if you see your future more in PR than journalism you can sell us out. Your move.

hi there,

my question to him would be:

1.) Can he understand that classifying a group of people with a "zero empathy" is pretty offensive?

2.) Shouldn't claims like this be backed up more than by some children-tests and interpretative brain scans?

3.) Does he do research for finding the truth about something, or for his career?

4.) He seems charming and achieved high ranks in society, and picks others. Is he a narcissistic?

thanks,
anton

Any other questions? I'm waiting on the interview results for the Markrams, then I will send some questions to Cohen. Uta Frith and Tony Attwood have also agreed to interviews.