High Sensitivity Is Not Autism

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In 2021, we published a piece titled ‘No, being autistic is not the same as being highly sensitive’, an article that has now been read over 100,000 times, indicating this is a topic that is on people’s minds. Over three years on, the message remains just as important: autism is not the same as high sensitivity.

So why are these two distinct concepts still so often confused or debated as if they’re interchangeable? Let’s unpack it.

Sensitivity, also known as ‘environmental sensitivity’,¹ is one dimension of temperament, a biologically based trait present in all people to varying degrees. Other examples of dimensions of temperament include introversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism. Sensitivity is also a key marker for what scientists across various fields refer to as ‘susceptibility’.²

Heightened susceptibility makes individuals with high sensitivity more affected by their experiences than others. This is not to say that people lower in the temperament trait of sensitivity aren’t affected by their experiences, but individuals high on sensitivity are not only significantly more vulnerable to negative environments but also more likely to thrive in positive ones compared to those with lower sensitivity. Unlike autism, which is either present or not, sensitivity exists on a continuum. Research indicates that around 30 per cent of people have high sensitivity, 40 per cent have moderate sensitivity, and 30 per cent have low sensitivity.³ In contrast, the prevalence of autism in high-income countries is estimated to be around 1–2 per cent.⁴

Overlap in lived experience

The trait of high sensitivity is seen across species,^{5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13} and indeed across neurotypes, too. Just as a person with autism can be high or low on introversion and conscientiousness, it stands to reason they would also sit somewhere on the spectrum of sensitivity, as part of their overall temperament. As such, part of the confusion around high sensitivity and autism likely stems from the experiences of highly sensitive autistic people, who identify strongly with both descriptions. This overlap in experience may then lead people who do not have a deep understanding of both autism and sensitivity to erroneously conclude that the concepts are one and the same.

Popularisation of the term ‘highly sensitive person’

Much of the confusion, particularly in online spaces, stems from the popularisation of the term "Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)". While the concept has helped raise public awareness of individual differences in sensory and emotional responsiveness, it is overly simplistic in that it focuses on just one dimension of a person’s broader temperament profile.

Over time, the HSP label has come to be interpreted not as a trait, but as a distinct “type” of person with a fixed set of characteristics and emotional tendencies. In many online spaces, this popularised notion of HSP has taken on a life of its own, often drifting away from the original research and scientific foundations of temperament.

As a result, people may over-identify with inaccurate and unscientific online characterisations of HSP, contributing to confusion between the temperament trait of high sensitivity and other distinct neurocognitive profiles, including autism. Some autistic people—whether highly sensitive or not—initially identify with the pop psychology label of “Highly Sensitive Person”, only to later realise their experiences are better explained by autism.

This leads many to incorrectly conclude that high sensitivity (a dimension of temperament) and autism (a neurotype) are one and the same. As such, some autistic individuals advocate for discarding the concept of high sensitivity altogether to prevent misidentification. While well-intentioned, this risks erasing a valid variation in temperament that remains relevant for around 30% of the population. A more helpful solution is to differentiate the scientific concept of sensitivity from the oversimplified HSP label, not to erase it.

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Maximisation of the single area of overlap

Whether someone is autistic, highly sensitive, or both, noises may seem louder, lights brighter, tags more irritating, and chaotic spaces more overwhelming. While highly sensitive individuals tend to experience hyper-reactivity to sensory information, autistic individuals may have either a hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory information, a combination of both, or neither. Understandably, similar experiences with hypersensitivity may lead to the assumption that these experiences come from the same underlying mechanism (i.e., that the sensitivity dimension of temperament and autism are one and the same). But while the sensory profiles may look similar for some people, the broader picture is different.

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Sensitivity reflects individual variation in the threshold for noticing and responding to environmental input. While it may increase susceptibility to overstimulation, it is not associated with differences in other aspects of experience, such as language development, communication, social understanding, or interpersonal style. In contrast, autism is defined by core differences from non-autistic people in these very areas.

Minimisation of differences

Autism is a distinct, lifelong “neurotype”, characterised by significant differences from non-autistic people in social interaction, sensory processing, and communication. For example, Autistic individuals may use language differently, being drawn to patterns, repetition, or playfulness with words, rather than primarily using language for social connection. While the communication differences observed in Autistic individuals were historically framed as "social deficits", recent research^14,15 has challenged this view, highlighting instead that difficulties in communication between Autistic and non-autistic people is due to a "mis-match" in communication and interpersonal styles. Studies also show Autistic people communicate more effectively and comfortably with other Autistic individuals, suggesting distinct, autism-specific social behaviours. ^16,17,18

In contrast, such differences in communication are not seen across the spectrum of sensitivity, for example, we don’t see a socio-communicative mismatch between people low on sensitivity and those high on sensitivity, as a result of difference in sensitivity. Autistic people also often show other characteristics, such as a preference for sameness and a deep capacity for hyperfocus,¹⁹ beyond what we typically see in non-autistic people, including highly sensitive non-autistic people. These autistic characteristics are not associated with high sensitivity, and reflect some key areas of differentiation of the temperament trait of sensitivity from the neurotype of autism.

Conclusion

High sensitivity is a variation in human temperament that influences how susceptible people are to their environment, in a for-better-and-for-worse manner, without affecting other areas of processing or experiencing, such as social behaviour, or communication. Autism, by contrast, is a neurotype marked by core divergences in these very areas, including how language is used and how social connection is experienced. Confusing the two not only muddies scientific understanding, it risks flattening the diversity of autistic experience and misrepresenting what it means to be a highly sensitive person. Clearer public discourse begins with recognising these differences and respecting them. In short, while some sensory experiences may look alike on the surface, that’s where the similarities end.