Gender Differences In Empathy Research Articles

Protocol of the study for predicting empathy during VR sessions using sensor data and machine learning.

Virtual reality (VR) technology is often referred to as the 'ultimate empathy machine' due to its capability to immerse users in alternate perspectives and environments beyond their immediate physical reality. In this study, participants will be immersed in 3-dimensional 360° VR videos where actors express different emotions (sadness, happiness, anger, and anxiousness). The primary objective is to investigate the potential relationship between participants' empathy levels and the changes in their physiological attributes. The empathy levels will be self-reported with questionnaires, and physiological attributes will be measured using different sensors. The main outcome of the study will be a machine learning model to predict a person's empathy level based on their physiological responses while watching VR videos. Despite the existence of established methodologies and metrics in research and clinical domains, our aim is to contribute to addressing the gap of a universally accepted "gold standard" for assessing empathy. Additionally, we expect to deepen our understanding of the relationship between different emotions and psychological attributes, gender differences in empathy, and the impact of narrative context on empathic responses.

Gender differences in empathy, compassion, and prosocial donations, but not theory of mind in a naturalistic social task

Despite broad interest, experimental evidence for gender differences in social abilities remains inconclusive. Two important factors may have limited previous results: (i) a lack of clear distinctions between empathy (sharing another's feelings), compassion (a feeling of concern toward others), and Theory of Mind (ToM; inferring others’ mental states), and (ii) the absence of robust, naturalistic social tasks. Overcoming these limitations, in Study 1 (N = 295) we integrate three independent, previously published datasets, each using a dynamic and situated, video-based paradigm which disentangles ToM, empathy, and compassion, to examine gender differences in social abilities. We observed greater empathy and compassion in women compared to men, but found no evidence that either gender performed better in ToM. In Study 2 (n = 226) we extend this paradigm to allow participants to engage in prosocial donations. Along with replicating the findings of Study 1, we also observed greater prosocial donations in women compared to men. Additionally, we discuss an exploratory, novel finding, namely that ToM performance is positively associated with prosocial donations in women, but not men. Overall, these results emphasize the importance of establishing experimental designs that incorporate dynamic, complex stimuli to better capture the social realities that men and women experience in their daily lives.

Parenting styles, empathy and aggressive behavior in preschool children: an examination of mediating mechanisms.

This study examined the interplay between parenting styles, empathy, and aggressive behavior in Chinese preschool children aged 3-5 years. Data were collected from 87 participants using the Child Behavior Checklist, Children's Empathy Quotient, and Parenting Style Questionnaire, and were subsequently analyzed. The findings revealed significant age and gender differences in empathy, but not in parenting styles or aggressive behavior. Additionally, a substantial correlation was identified between authoritarian parenting style and aggressive behavior, as well as between children's empathy levels and aggressive behavior. This indicates that empathy may act as a mediator between parenting style and aggressive behavior. Our findings suggest that an authoritarian parenting style influences aggressive behavior both directly and indirectly through its effect on children's empathy. These results point toward the possibility that an authoritarian parenting style may stifle the development of empathy in preschool children, subsequently heightening their aggressive behavior.

The Gender Gap in Animal Experimentation Support: The Mediating Roles of Empathy and Speciesism

ABSTRACT There is a large gender gap in support for animal experimentation, with men endorsing this practice more than women. However, little is known about the psychological factors associated with these differences. Drawing on a large and gender-balanced sample (nwomen = 551, nmen = 454), we conducted a cross-sectional survey to examine whether gender differences in empathy, social dominance orientation (SDO), and speciesism mediate gender differences in attitudes toward animal experimentation. Our results indicate that gender differences in empathy and speciesism mediate the link between gender and support for animal experimentation, but SDO does not. An integrative model also confirmed the role of gender differences in dispositional empathy related directly to speciesist attitudes, which as a result were related to attitudes toward animal testing. This research brings new insights into gender differences in the acceptance of animal experimentation and may explain why women are more likely than men to be opposed to this practice.

The Impact of a Brief Humanizing Intervention on Prejudice Towards Transgender Individuals

Transgender individuals face an abundance of stigma and prejudice from society, making them vulnerable to discrimination, violence, increased stress, and mental health deterioration (Hughto et al., 2015). This study looked at the extent to which a brief humanizing intervention can decrease prejudice against transgender individuals using methods designed to reduce social desirability bias. Unlike past work, the current study implemented a control group that was not subjected to any intervention. Participants (N=302) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the control condition, the transman letter condition, and the musician letter condition. Only cisgender participants within the gender binary were used in the analysis (N=293). The humanizing intervention involved having participants read a letter written by a transgender man in which he comes out to his parents. The musician letter condition involved having participants read a letter written by a young man telling his parents that he is quitting college to pursue a career in music. The control condition did not include any letter. Participants then responded to various dependent measures such as attitudes towards transgender individuals and empathy. Few effects of the intervention were observed, which were inconsistent with past research. However, the results of this study showed an impact on participants’ perception of how parents should react to their children coming out and a decrease in the standard gender differences in empathy. Thus, the results offer a nuanced understanding of the extent to which humanizing interventions can reduce prejudice towards transgender individuals.

Gender differences in empathy measurement by different methodologies

This article reviewed the literature on gender differences in empathy(defined as someone’s emotional state causes one to experience what one perceive as a similar emotion). A total of five representative studies are examined according to the method they used to assess empathy, in which some studies used self-report questionnaires, others measured brain activities. All of the researches utilizing self-report questionnaires have consistent results favoring women in terms of empathetic abilities, while studies that measured brain activities concluded no discrepancies in initial empathetic abilities. It is suggested that the self-reports are influenced by social expectations, and discrepancy in results of researches in brain activities were impacted by the number of samples and the ongoing debate concerning the responsibility of particular brain areas for empathetic responses. To conclude, there is little discrepancy in the initial empathetic abilities between males and females. However, due to cultural and social factors, females may be more inclined to show more empathetic behavior.

Gender differences in empathy and clinical symptoms in chronic schizophrenia patients: a large sample study based on a Chinese Han population

Background Empathy is social cognition and reduced empathy in schizophrenia (SCZ) has been noted; however, whether there are gender differences in empathy remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore this issue by examining a large sample of the population with SCZ. Methods We recruited 987 SCZ patients (M/F = 638/349). The empathy was assessed by The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was adopted to assess their clinical psychiatric symptoms and their ability to recognise the facial emotions of others was assessed by the Pictures Of Facial Affect (POFA). Results Female SCZ patients had higher IRI total score than male patients. In male patients, Pearson correlation analysis showed that empathy was negatively correlated with PANSS total score and negative symptom subscale scores, but positively correlated with anger identification. In female patients, IRI total score was negatively correlated with PANSS total score as well as its positive and negative symptom subscale scores (all p < 0.05). Conclusion There are gender differences in the empathy of SCZ patients, with female patients having greater empathy and a correlation with their clinical symptoms. This gender difference may provide potential clinical value for the treatment of SCZ. KEY POINTS Female SCZ were more likely to empathise than males; Female patients had more severe clinical symptoms than males; There were gender differences in the association between certain specific clinical presentations and empathy. In future studies, it may be useful to investigate gender differences in schizophrenia empathy for the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder.

Gender differences in empathy, emotional intelligence and problem-solving ability among nursing students: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundEmpathy, emotional intelligence (EI) and problem-solving ability are three important characteristics that influence effective communication in clinical practice. Previous studies have not adequately explored the specific relationships between these three abilities and their gender differences among nursing students. ObjectiveWe sought to investigate the current state of emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving ability in nursing students and to identify whether gender differences affect these three characteristics and how gender differences can be used to educate nurses on empathy. DesignWe conducted a cross-sectional survey. ParticipantsA total of 993 nursing students from two grade A tertiary hospitals in Hunan, China participated in this study. MethodsData were collected using the Empathy of Clinical Nurse Scale (ENCS), Emotional Intelligence Scale of Clinical Junior Nurses (EIS) and Social Problem-Solving Inventory (SPSI). Data were analyzed using an independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple linear regression. ResultsThere was no significant difference in the ENCS and SPSI scores between male and female nursing students, but male nursing students had lower EIS scores (P < 0.05). A significant association was found between ENCS, EIS and SPSI on most dimensions among female nursing students, but no significant association was found between ENCS and EIS for total scores among males. We found that problem-solving ability was the most important factor affecting the variation in empathy for both male and female nursing students through hierarchical multiple regression analysis. ConclusionsGender differences are reflected not only in the level of emotional intelligence but also in the relationships between emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving ability. Nursing educators should be aware of how gender differences can affect these three traits; this is particularly important for teaching based on students' aptitudes.

Empathy development from adolescence to adulthood and its consistency across targets.

This research was conducted with two main goals—to contribute to knowledge on the development of empathy from early adolescence to adulthood, including its contribution to decoding emotion expression, and to improve the understanding of the nature of empathy by simultaneously assessing empathy toward two different targets—humans and animals. It unfolded into two cross-sectional studies: One (S1) obtaining measures of empathy toward humans and animals as targets across five age groups (from pre-adolescents to adults); and another (S2) where a subset of the adolescents who participated in S1 were assessed in emotion expression decoding and subjective and physiological responses to emotional video clips. The results of S1 showed that empathy toward animals and most dimensions of empathy toward humans increase toward adulthood, with important gender differences in empathy to animals and humans, and empathy levels in girls starting off in the age trajectory at higher levels, A moderate correlation between empathy toward human and toward animal targets was also found. S2 showed that the expression of positive emotion is better recognized than that of negative emotion, surprise, or neutral expression, and that the measure of human-directed empathy predicts successful decoding of negative emotion, whereas skin conductance responses (SCRs) and subjective valence ratings predicted successful identification of positive emotion. Gender differences emerged but not across all age groups nor all subscales. Results yield keys to the developmental “pace” and trajectory of the various dimensions of empathy and to how empathy relates to emotion decoding.

The Relations of Empathy and Gender to Aesthetic Response and Aesthetic Inference of Visual Artworks

The relation between empathy and aesthetic experience has been stated early in empirical aesthetics. Aesthetic empathy means the ability to take the perspective of an artwork´s depicted content or form. Nowadays, empathy defines the ability to infer other persons´ mental states and feelings. In this study, we investigated the relationship between empathy and aesthetic response and aesthetic inference abilities. Subjects judged twenty-four visual artworks on an affective, a cognitive, and a beauty dimension, in a Self- and Other-assessment. We analyzed these data in relation to self-judged empathy on four dimensions: emotional and cognitive empathy in fictitious and in real-world situations. Additionally, we considered gender differences in empathy and aesthetic response. Results show (gender-specific) correlations between empathy and aesthetic response and aesthetic inference abilities. This supports the assumption that empathy assists to adopt the perspective of visual artworks as well as to infer the aesthetic preferences of other people.

Causes of intimate partner homicide: Gender differences in empathy, psychopathy, and perceived social support

Causes of intimate partner homicide: Gender differences in empathy, psychopathy, and perceived social support

Abstract- Poster

Background:Clinical empathy is known to increase patients’ sense of satisfaction, thereby facilitating their compliance. Empathetic doctors are therefore found to make better clinical decisions. Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) has seen particularly widespread use among medical students, as a tailored version of the JSE (the JSE-S) was developed specifically to gauge clinical empathy in medical students.Methods:A cross-sectional study to assess the empathy of undergraduate Medical students at the Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, Telangana, India, was conducted using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy–Student Version. Demographic data were obtained using a pretested, semi-open-ended questionnaire.Results:Of the 100 students, 78 participated in the survey (78%). The mean empathy score was 94.3 (of a maximum of 140), with a standard deviation of 13.34. The empathy scores decreased from the first to the third semester, plateaued at the fifth semester, and rose. Again in the seventh semester. Empathy was found to be significantly associated with the gender of the participant, with females having higher scores (P<0.001).Conclusion:The study found significant gender differences in empathy among the participants. The empathy scores tended to decline initially and then rebound over time. The mean empathy levels found in this study are lower than those reported in most similar studies around the world; therefore, further studies are needed to analyze and address the underlying factors associated with this discrepancy.

The cognitive, affective and somatic empathy scales for adults

The Cognitive, Affective and Somatic Empathy Scales (CASES) assess three forms of empathy, each with subscales for positive and negative empathy. The present study extends this child instrument to adults and examines its factor structure and construct validity. A secondary aim is to investigate the under-researched area of positive empathy. Community samples totaling 2604 adults completed the CASES for adults, together with scales assessing construct validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor cognitive-affective-somatic model and a two-factor positive-negative empathy model. Findings were replicated in a second independent sample. Internal reliabilities ranged from 0.80 to 0.92. Individuals with higher psychopathy and stimulation-seeking scores were less impaired in their empathic reactions to positive relative to negative valence events, suggesting that they are relatively capable of responding emotionally to rewarding events. Somatic empathy was most strongly associated with pleasure in affective touch and with female > male gender differences in empathy. While proactive aggression was associated with reduced cognitive and affective empathy, reactive aggression was associated with increased empathy. Findings provide initial support for the utility of CASES for assessing different forms of empathy and suggest that the balance between positive and negative empathy could provide new insights into psychological traits.

Gender Differences in Empathy During Adolescence: Does Emotional Self-Awareness Matter?

Empathy refers to the capacity to experience emotions similar to those observed or imagined in another person, with the full knowledge that the other person is the source of these emotions. Awareness of one's own emotional states is a prerequisite for self-other differentiation to develop. This study investigated gender differences in empathy during adolescence and tested whether emotional self-awareness explained these differences. Two-hundred-eleven adolescents (108 girls and 103 boys) between 14 and 19 years completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess empathy and emotional self-awareness, respectively. Overall, girls obtained higher scores than boys on IRI subscales like emotional concern, personal distress, and fantasy. Regarding emotional self-awareness, we found gender differences in TAS-20 scores, with girls reporting greater difficulty identifying feelings and less externally oriented thinking than boys. Difficulty identifying feelings explained the greatest personal distress experienced by girls. Lower externally oriented thinking accounted for girls' greater emotional concern and fantasy. These findings offer an insight into the role of emotional self-awareness-which is essential for self-other differentiation-as an account for gender differences in empathic abilities during adolescence. In girls, difficulty identifying feelings can impair the ability to differentiate between ones' and others' emotions, leading them to experience self-focused and aversive responses when confronted with others' suffering. Conversely, in boys, externally oriented thinking can mitigate personal distress when faced with others' discomfort.

Are women the more empathetic gender? The effects of gender role expectations

The present research aimed to extend the state of knowledge regarding the relationship between self-perceived empathy and traditional gender roles and placed particular focus on the contextual conditions under which gender differences in empathy are present, can be created, or eliminated. Across two studies, women rated themselves higher in empathy than men in all experimental conditions, whereas an objective female superiority in emotion recognition was only evident in one condition. In Study 1 (n = 736), using the term ‘social-analytic capacity’ instead of ‘empathic capacity’ increased gender differences in self-reported empathy and resulted in women performing better in the Eyes-test than men. In a neutral task (verbal intelligence), gender differences (in this case, a male superiority), were only found when participants believed that this task had an association with empathy. In Study 2 (n = 701), gender differences in self-reported empathic capacity, but not in performance in emotion recognition, increased when motivation for empathy was raised. Further, gender-role orientation mediated the association between gender and self-reported empathic capacity, whereas it did not account for the association between gender and emotion recognition. Overall, the present studies provide strong support for the idea that empathy is influenced by contextual factors and can be systematically biased by gender roles and stereotypical beliefs.

Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude and Empathy Levels of Dental Postgraduates Towards Their Patients During Practice and Research-A Questionnaire Based Survey.

Empathy is vital in ensuring the quality of the patient-clinician relationship. Empathy in the health care setting is the ability to understand a patient's experiences and feelings and communicate this understanding for better clinical outcomes in dental treatments. The study aimed to compare levels of empathy in post-graduate dental students across the different years of the master's degree course. Questionnaire forms distributed among post graduate students and awareness, knowledge, attitude, and empathy levels towards their patients were assessed. Responses of all the post-graduate students of all specialties in a dental institute were subjected to statistical analysis to know and compare their empathy towards the patients during their clinical practice and research throughout their three-year master's degree. The mean empathy score was 52.01 (maximum of 100), with a standard deviation of 6.69. The empathy scores decreased slightly from the first to the third year of the master's degree. The participant's age, marital status, place of residence, and specialties of dental post-graduation showed much significant difference in empathy levels. The study found slight significant gender differences in empathy among the participants. The empathy scores declined gradually very slightly as they were promoted to the next level in the course. The increase in empathy levels found in this study is more significant than those reported in similar studies due to the inclusion of educational and orientation programs at the time of admission into post-graduate studies.

Gender differences in empathic responses to others' economic payoffs: an event-related potentials study.

Although gender differences in empathy have been well established through measuring subjective outcomes, some studies of the neural mechanisms of pain empathy have not found gender differences. This inconsistent evidence may be caused by different research methods or different paradigms. The present study adopted a different approach from the pain empathy paradigm to examine gender differences in empathic responses to others' economic payoffs using event-related potentials. The results showed that the N2 amplitudes in female participants were more negative than those in male participants, indicating a greater female than male susceptibility to facial expressions at the early stage of empathy. The LPP amplitudes for male participants were found to be more positive in the observation condition (involving no self-interest) than in the participation condition (involving self-interest), but there was no significant difference in the LPP amplitudes for the female participants between the two conditions. The results suggest that females' empathic responses are more likely to be elicited automatically by the perception of others' emotional states. In contrast, males' empathic responses are more likely to be mediated by self-interest, which subsequently reduces their empathic responses.

Can empathy close the racial divide and gender gap in death penalty support?

Public opinion data indicate that the majority of US respondents support the death penalty. Research has consistently indicated, however, that Blacks and females are significantly less likely to support capital punishment than their White and male counterparts. Past research efforts attempting to account for these differences have, at best, only partially accounted for them: the racial divide and gender gap in death penalty support, while narrowed, remained evident. This study proposes that empathy, particularly ethnocultural empathy, may be a key explanatory correlate of death penalty support and that racial and gender differences in empathy may fully explain the observed racial and gender differences in death penalty support. This study uses three forms of empathy measures (cognitive, affective, and ethnocultural) to test this hypothesis using survey data from a sample of undergraduate students. Our results show that neither a variety of other "known correlates" of death penalty support nor cognitive or affective empathy scales were able to fully account for the observed racial difference in death penalty support. Ethnocultural empathy, however, was successful in reducing the effect of race on death penalty support to nonsignificance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to have done so.

Inteligencia emocional, género y clima familiar en adolescentes peruanos

The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship of emotional intelligence and family environment. A cross-sectional and correlational study was executed, involved 127 adolescents in San Juan de Lurigancho District, Lima - Peru. Data obtained were on age, sex, and family structure. Measurements of family environment (FE) and emotional intelligence (EI) were made through an adapted version of the Family Environment Scale (FES) and a EI scale, respectively. Student’s t test was used for the comparison of emotional intelligence scores by gender and family structure and Pearson’s r for the correlation analysis between family environment and emotional intelligence. The analysis revealed gender differences in empathy (t = 3.445, p <.01) and social skills (t = 2.711, p <.01), where women presented higher scores than men. There were no gender differences in the total score of EI. There were also significant differences in self-regulation (t = 2.319; p <.05) and self-motivation (t = 2.713; p <.01) in adolescents from nuclear and non-nuclear families. Finally, a direct correlation between family environment and emotional intelligence was found (r = .632, p <.01).

Clinical empathy in medical students in India measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student Version.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess the clinical empathy of a cohort of medical students spanning 4 years of undergraduate study and to identify factors associated with empathy.MethodsA cross-sectional study to assess the empathy of undergraduate medical students at the University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital in Delhi, India, was conducted using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy–Student Version. Demographic data were obtained using a pre-tested, semi-open-ended questionnaire.ResultsOf the 600 students, 418 participated in the survey (69.7%). The mean empathy score was 96.01 (of a maximum of 140), with a standard deviation of 14.56. The empathy scores decreased from the first to the third semester, plateaued at the fifth semester, and rose again in the seventh semester. Empathy was found to be significantly associated with the gender of the participant, with females having higher scores (P<0.001). The age of the participant, place of residence, whose decision it was for the student to enroll in an MBBS (bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery) program, and the choice of future specialty were not significantly associated with students’ empathy scores.ConclusionThe study found significant gender differences in empathy among the participants. The empathy scores tended to decline initially and then rebound over time. The mean empathy levels found in this study are lower than those reported in most similar studies around the world; therefore, further studies are needed to analyze and address the underlying factors associated with this discrepancy.