why do we have this connection with animals?

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from what I read, it is really common for autistics to have this special connection with animals.
Is this your case?
why do you think that happens?

add: and many of us can make eye contact with animals but not people :)
I am asking this because I read a theory that autistics are actually empaths, it's just that humans are too complicated. It is not uncommon for an autistic person to protect animals or their rights and to have this connection and understand them. Maybe we have skills to have connections but humans we can't understand. And maybe we pick body and emotion subtleties too well (the opposite of mainstream idea), but humans send too much information.
other possible relation: in the mbti polls we found 70% of autistics are of IN type, introvert intuitive. Maybe this understanding of animals also has to do with us being very intuitive. I actually don't know if they meant intuitive in that way, but...
what is your opinion? Please comment on the first theory!

Last edited by linatet on 14 May 2014, 3:15 am, edited 3 times in total.

Animals don't expect too much from you.
They know you love them and they love you back.
They're not as complicated as humans.

There's no hidden emotion like in humans.

A lot of ASD people seem to have a different attitude to animals than many NTs. Animals are more seen as having as much right to co-exist on the planet (by many in the ASD community) rather than as commodities to be exploited, as inferior forms of life. There are differences in attitudes to pets too, from what I have noticed. This basis of respect affects the way we interact with our animals, and they sense that somehow. It may be something to do with the fact that ASD people aren't so much into hierarchies, dominance et al.

I don't believe animals particularly connect with me.

I've had cats, though, that were empathetic to my suffering. They provided solace when I was depressed or sick.

As far as dogs go, it depends on the dog. Usually, those in "toy breeds" are not too friendly to me. Larger dogs like me better.

Wild animals have no real affinity with me.

Love what you said B19 about animals having as much right to exist as humans. I do have Asperger friends that see the logical side of how much a pet cost in money and time and think having pets is illogical. Animals (pets, horses, farm animals, wild animals) and I communicate well and I love them, but I don't feel sentimental if an animal is humanly killed for food or because it's sick. Like others said, animals are straightforward in their communications. Also I just love to observe animals interacting with each other and with their world. I have spent thousands of hours in my life watching them.

I believe it is because we actually are very good at interpreting body language and behavioral subtleties.
Why should a group of people, profoundly well known for their stunning abilities at observing even the tiniest of details, be thought otherwise?

I also believe that we are very good at nonverbal communication (when we trust it -see below) otherwise how could we be so majikally good with animals? It's not just a lack of threat -a fence post has that- we dynamically interact with them; meaning we adjust our communication with them and help them adjust their emotions and behaviors into what we want for them to feel and act.

I think the main difference is that animals don't lie to try to claim they meant something other than what their vocalizations, expressions, and body language clearly told us, when things don't go their way.
Maybe because animals quickly forget what they said, or maybe because they don't have social conventions "requiring" them to be "consistent" and therefore must engage in revisionism to make their past activities "consistent" with what they're attempting now.

When someone tries to 'clean up' or change 'their story' I think this confuses us, partly because of a long history of being told that we were wrong in our interpretations.
(often involving punishment, which is a strong motivator)

Early on and often, those telling us we're wrong (with punishment) were "interpreting" what they "witnessed" from afar, or based on something some other little brat told them either for attention or to get us in trouble.
We are also, most of our lives, "out voted" on what "they" really meant because certain revisions are socially acceptable as truth.
Since we are already confused about how all that works, we fall farther and farther behind until we doubt every observed human behavior.

But animals don't change their story, nor do they go tattle on us and have their story changed to a new and improved truth.
And they don't dump us as friends just because another animal laughed at them for liking us.

In fact most adults ignore animals and are just as happy when that weird, spastic, annoying, little brat is quiet for a change "and look how much that dog likes him, thank god because none of the rest of us do... bless his soul."

So life is a little safer for a short bit. Plus nobody can sneak up on us because we'll see the animal look at them.

I get along with just about any animal as long as it isn't too aggressive and it doesn't crap on my floor.

I'd love to have a skunk for a pet as long as I could get it vaccinated for rabies.

Me and animals don't get on very well for, just like humans, sheer unpredictability. Otherwise Iv'e have an affinity with the animal kind through furry culture if that count's. lol, I'd rather be a fox than human.

Yes. For the same reason we tend not to be racist either.
Everyone is equal (including animals). There are no social hierarchies.
I have always seen animals as equals and have related to them that way.
People have told me I should show a dog that I am the dominate one, but I cannot do that and I have never had any problems with dogs.
When I was a kid, my parents used to say that I thought animals were people.
I kind of do think that.

Four legs good!

I really hate it when people describe criminals as "animals". It's defamation of animals.

Animals give me unconditional love and they accept me as I am. Chico loves me to pieces and I cuddle with him. :O)

Could it be because animals, like dogs for example, love us unconditionally, and since it seems to be the norm that we are rejected by our peers, it is comforting to have something out there that wants and needs us? I love my dog, Charlotte. She means the world to me. My wife often derides me, and talks about how she's "just a dog," but I can never see her that way. To me, Charlotte is the one who comes to me when she senses I'm sad and need extra affection. Animals provide predictability during the time they are with us, that nothing else can match.

Aint that a fact! The loyalty of animals is a shame on human beings.

Animals don't use NT style non-verbal communications. So, out intuitive channels are much the same. If you think we have trouble with non-verbal queues, imagine what a cat goes through.

Animals don't judge you or make fun of you like some people do.