A bit too human?
In both the ASD and comparison groups, the empathy score attributed to another species overall increased with the phylogenetic proximity to us. And yet, interestingly, when compared with the comparison group, this increase in scores attributed by ASD people appears to be the less strong as species are close to us.
This phenomenon is compatible with the anthropomorphic stimuli hypothesis according to which the more anthropomorphic a species is, the more it can be cognitively processed in the same way as human. While it implies in the comparison group a regular increase of the empathy with phylogenetic proximity to humans, it might translate in the ASD group, into a relatively similar trends, although modulated for our closest relatives: The more a species is resembling to us, the more it would receive a cognitive treatment approaching the one specifically dedicated to humans, which in people with ASD would translate into a lower ability to understand its emotions.