Relating sex differences in aggression to three forms of empathy

Abstract

Men commit violent crime at substantially higher rates than women. One proposed mediator of this relation is empathy, as men consistently score lower than women on measures of empathy and empathy deficits are thought to characterize violent crime and disorders of aggression. However, recent research suggests that traditional empathy measures are only weakly related to aggression, whereas a new form of “anti-empathy” exhibits much stronger relations. The goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which empathy and anti-empathy indirectly account for sex differences in aggression and antisocial behavior, and whether these relations differ by sex. The current study (N = 369) employed a multifaceted measure of empathy to show that sex differences in aggression were indirectly accounted for by affective empathy and anti-empathy, but not cognitive empathy. The effects of empathy deficits were equivalent for men and women. These findings provide support for empathy as an important and generalizable trait in the sex-aggression association and highlight the usefulness of a focus on specific affective forms.