Empathy and emotion recognition in people with autism, first-degree relatives, and controls

► Self-rated empathy deficits were found in fathers of autistic probands only. ► ASC parents were not significantly worse than controls at identifying basic facial emotions. ► Self-rated empathy and emotion recognition deficits were found for adults with ASC. ► There were sex differences within the ASC group for emotion recognition only. ► Using self-rated empathy and basic emotion recognition as endophenotypes for ASC is discussed.