Do aspie's have Emapthy or not?

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Great question!

Empathy. The word comes from the Greek for 'feel within'. To me, it's the ability to out yourself in someone else's shoes, to 'get inside' their feelings and understand why they're feeling the way they are, in the way you'd understand if you were having those feelings.

Now, this isn't something I have trouble with. But I do often have trouble knowing how to respond. I often say that I'm a wuss around other people's pain, and it's true; if someone is crying round me, I don't know how to react. That doesn't mean I don't understand or share their feelings - they can be very clear, and perhaps too intense - it's the actual behavioral aspect of dealing with them that gets me.

Of course, an interesting point is that while many AS folks have made a conscious effort to understand the way NTs feel, there are plenty of NTs who - in spite of supposedly having more 'natural' empathy - don't appear to understand, or even be prepared to try and understand, how we feel. Which puts a whole different spin on things, I think!

scored an 8...

despite that I think I do have some innate empathy. I after all never like to see people crying/upset. I just tend to not know why they are feeling this way.

I scored a 45 out of 80 on the EQ test. However, my problem is more expressing my empathy.

I think a lot of autistics experience empathy, but either don't express it, or mistake it for something else.

I scored 40, right down the middle

You know I try to be empathetic, but I wished I knew so these results are somewhat accurate, somewhat not (Just like SAT scores)

I try to be concerned, really, I do but I am not sure.

I agree about the aspie desire to "problem-solve" in crisis situations. I feel uncomfortable when others are suffering, and the best thing I know how to do is present possible solutions, point out irrationalities. Recently, this actually happened with my aspie partner. I kept talking at him about how everything could work out and asking questions, and he eventually was able to tell me that he just needed me to hug him and be with him. I honestly had no idea--but now I know for next time, I think.

I find it easier to express empathy to other people when my senses are not overstimulated. It sounds selfish but i constantly have to cope with my own racing mind. I respond to something by instantly forming a picture in my mind first, intead of automatically responding to words and situations. Emotionally I think I have more empathy than many people because I can itensely live myself into situations, visualising it into the finest details with no effort. It is expressing empathy, the right amount at the right time, that space space between being overbearing and being aloof that is difficult to master.

Would be great if everyone was trying to figure out empathy and theory of mind when dealing with Aspies.

I'm proud to say I do not have empathy.

I have logical situation-analysis capabilities. That is to say I can attempt to account for the significant influences upon a given situation and thus analyse what the available options and potential thought processes would be for a person under said circumstances....... BUT I cannot and will not empathise.

Your Empathy Quotient (EQ) is 20 out of 80

It depends on what you define as empathy. Technically, I don't show much empathy, but I feel a lot of compassion and sympathy.

sinagua confuses a sense of wrong with empathy. People with AS tend to have an incredibly active sense of determining what is wrong. That is one of the cornerstones of their lives. Which is also the reason why I read that statement and feel a compulsion to correct it. I notice things that are wrong everywhere. And we hate what is wrong. It is the core of one of our strongest emotions. Many times our "empathy" mistakenly believes that those around us should be as disturbed as we are by that which is wrong.

By definition those with AS do have a limited or non-existant natural sense of empathy for those around us. Either we project our own responses onto others (which tends to not be very accurate) or else we have rationalized and come to understand "rules" of what things probably mean. So we can do things such as pick up on cues from others, not because we do it instinctively, but because we have developed habits to apply the rules we have learned. Functionally it is probably wrong to say that those with AS have no empathy, as we are able to exhibit it. It just is not natural for us, it is deduced.