Emphatizing-systemizing theory

The empathising–systemising (E–S) theory is a theory put forward by psychologist Simon Baron Cohen, it attempts to explain psychological basis of autism and male–female neurological differences. It classifies individuals based on their abilities in empathic thinking (E) and systematic thinking (S), represented by emotional quotient (EQ) and systemizing quotient (SQ) respectively. The differences between EQ and SQ are used to classify an individual in one of the four brain types or profiles.

Theory

Empathising ability can be understood as a drive to understand another person's emotion and thoughts and to response to them. While systemizing ability can be understood as a drive to construct and understand complex systems. Females score higher on measures of empathising ability while men score higher on systemizing ability. This is corroborated by self reports/tests based on facial emotion recognition and measures of mechanical reasoning.

Causes

Fetal Testosterone

Cohen argues that pre natal exposure to testosterone can be positively correlated with higher systemizing ability. Furthermore,exposure to pre natal testosterone has also been positively correlated with development of autism. Therefore it has been argued that levels of fetal testosterone in the womb can influence the development of a sexually dimorphic brain and neurological differences between sexes and between autistic and non autistic individuals.

Extreme male brain theory of autism

Cohen argues that higher levels of fetal testosterone can be correlated with increased prevalence of autism in males. Cohen formulated brain types based on differences in systemizing and empathising abilities.
Type E, whose empathy is at a significantly higher level than their systemising (E > S).
Type S, whose systemising is at a significantly higher level than their empathy (S > E).
Type B (for balanced), whose empathy is at the same level as their systemising (E = S).
Extreme Type E, whose empathy is above average but whose systemising is below average (E ≫ S).
Extreme Type S, whose systemising is above average but whose empathy is below average (S ≫ E).
According to Cohen , autism represents the extreme type S, with 65% of the people on autism spectrum belonging to the said type,Women are more likely to score extreme Type E than their male counterparts.