Empathy In Men Research Articles

Critical evaluation of contrasting evidence on whether male circumcision has adverse psychological effects: A systematic review.

ObjectiveTo conduct the first systematic review critically examining evidence on whether early male circumcision has short‐ and long‐term adverse psychological effects.MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar.ResultsTwenty‐four studies with original data met the inclusion criteria. These comprised 11,173 total males, 4340 circumcised in infancy and 6908 uncircumcised. Nineteen were rated 1+, 2++ or 2+, and 5 were rated 2– by SIGN criteria. Neonatal circumcision, particularly without anesthetic, increased vaccination pain response, but had little effect on breastfeeding or cognitive ability. Studies reporting associations with sudden infant death syndrome, autism, alexithymia and impaired sexual function and pleasure had design flaws and were rated 2–. Sexual arousal, touch, pain, and warmth thresholds measured by quantitative sensory testing were not diminished in neonatally circumcised men. Neonatal circumcision was not associated with empathy in men, contradicting the hypothesis that procedural pain causes central nervous system changes. After correcting all associations with socioaffective processing parameters for multiple testing only higher sociosexual desire, dyadic sexual libido/drive, and stress remained significant. The relatively greater sexual activity found in circumcised men might reflect reduced sexual activity in uncircumcised men overall owing to pain and psychological aversion in those with foreskin‐related medical conditions (reverse causality). Most studies employed case‐control designs with limited follow‐up. Studies beyond childhood were prone to confounding.ConclusionThe highest quality evidence suggest that neonatal and later circumcision has limited or no short‐term or long‐term adverse psychological effects.

Childhood Sexual Abuse, Dyadic Empathy, and Intimate Partner Violence Among Men Seeking Psychological Help.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) have both been associated with numerous negative repercussions. The first aim of this study is to understand IPV perpetrated by men within a clinical population, by examining the effects of two potential predictors: CSA and dyadic empathy (cognitive and emotional). The second aim of this study is to explore whether dyadic empathy is an intermediary variable of the association between CSA and IPV. A sample of 198 men (aged 18-69years old) who were seeking help for relationship problems, completed a set of self-administered questionnaires. While controlling for social desirability and family violence history, our findings outlined the mediating and moderating role of dyadic empathy in the link between CSA and perpetrated psychological, but not physical, IPV. Emotional empathy mediated and moderated the link between CSA and psychological IPV, whereas cognitive empathy only moderated this link. The examination of the direct links between the variables also revealed that CSA was related to lower emotional empathy and higher rates of both types of IPV. In addition, cognitive empathy was negatively associated with physical and psychological IPV, whereas emotional empathy was positively associated with psychological IPV. This study contributes to the literature by documenting some of the mechanisms that could explain the perpetration of IPV and highlights the importance of investigating CSA and empathy in men who are seeking help.

Cognitive and affective empathy in men with alcohol dependence: Relation with clinical profile, abstinence, and motivation.

Background:Empathy plays a role not only in pathophysiology but also in planning management strategies for alcohol dependence; however, few studies have looked into it. No data are available regarding the variation of empathy with abstinence and motivation. Assessment based on cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy is needed.Aim:This study aimed to assess cognitive and affective empathy in men with alcohol dependence and compared it with normal controls. Association of empathy with disease-specific variables, motivation, and abstinence was also done.Methods:This was a cross-sectional observational study conducted in the outpatient department of a tertiary care center. Sixty men with alcohol dependence and 60 healthy controls were recruited and assessed using the Basic Empathy Scale for cognitive and affective empathy. The University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale was used to assess motivation. Other variables were assessed using a semi-structured pro forma. Comparative analysis was done using unpaired t-test and one-way ANOVA. Correlation was done using Pearson's correlation test.Results:Cases with alcohol dependence showed lower levels of cognitive, affective, and total empathy as compared to controls. Affective and total empathy were higher in abstinent men. Empathy varied across various stages of motivation, with a significant difference seen between precontemplation and action stages. Empathy correlated negatively with number of relapses and positively with family history of addiction.Conclusions:Empathy (both cognitive and affective) is significantly reduced in alcohol dependence. Higher empathy correlates with lesser relapses. Abstinence and progression in motivation cycle is associated with remission in empathic deficits.

Interpersonal Neural Synchronization during Interpersonal Touch Underlies Affiliative Pair Bonding between Romantic Couples.

Interpersonal touch plays a key role in creating and maintaining affiliative pair bonds in romantic love. However, the neurocognitive mechanism of interpersonal touch in affiliative pair bonding remains unclear. Here, we hypothesized that interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) during interpersonal touch underlies affiliative pair bonding between romantic couples. To test this hypothesis, INS between heterosexual romantic couples and between opposite-sex friends was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based hyperscanning, while the pairs of participants touched or vocally communicated with each other. The results showed significantly greater INS between the mentalizing and sensorimotor neural systems of two members of a pair during interpersonal touch than during vocal communication between romantic couples but not between friends. Moreover, touch-induced INS was significantly correlated with the self-reported strength of romantic love. Finally, the results also showed that men's empathy positively modulated the association between touch-induced INS increase and the strength of romantic love. These findings support the idea that INS during interpersonal touch underlies affiliative pair bonding between romantic couples and suggest that empathy plays a modulatory role in the neurocognitive mechanism of interpersonal touch in affiliative pair bonding.

Empathy and Romantic Relationship Quality among Cohabitating Couples: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model.

This study employed a dyadic data analysis approach to examine the association between partners' empathy and relationship quality among cohabitating couples. Data were collected from 374 cohabitating but non-married couples, who were participants in the Wave 3 Romantic Pairs Subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Men's higher empathy was related to their own perceptions of better relationship quality and women's higher empathy was related to their own as well as their partner's perceptions of better relationship quality. These findings show that individuals' abilities to be understanding, compassionate, and sympathetic may be related to the overall feeling of satisfaction and love in romantic relationships. The only effect that did not reach statistical significance was the partner effect from men's empathy to women's relationship quality. Although previous research with married couples has shown that men's empathy may play a more important role in shaping couples' perceptions of relationship quality, according to the current findings, these findings may not extend to cohabitating couples. The current results provide beneficial guidance to clinicians working with distressed, non-married couples.

Sexual Perpetration History Predicting Men's Empathy with a Rapist

The purpose of this study was to examine empathy with a hypothetical rapist based on type of sexual perpetration experience (i.e., none, nonrape perpetrators, rapists who do not admit to “rape,” and rapists who admit to “rape”). Undergraduate men (n = 385) completed the Rape-Perpetrator Empathy Scale (Smith and Frieze 2003) and the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Perpetration (Koss et al. 2007), which first asks behavior-based questions, without using the word “rape,” to identify rapists and those with other sexual perpetration experience, and then asks if they “may have ever raped someone.” None of the respondents admitted to “rape,” but participants whose survey responses indicated prior behavior consistent with rape (rapists) reported greater empathy than those who indicated no behaviors consistent with any type of sexual perpetration (nonperpetrators). Respondents who indicated prior behavior consistent with sexual perpetration, but not rape (nonrape perpetrators) did not differ from either rapists or nonperpetrators. Committing rape may be associated with greater rape perpetrator empathy due to similarity in experience.

Sex-Specific Effect of Recalled Parenting on Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Adulthood

Previous research has demonstrated the influence of parenting on the development of children’s empathy. However, few studies have considered the impact of parents on empathy in adulthood, specific components of empathy, or the importance of parent and child biological sex. In the present study, 226 participants (71 men) completed online versions of the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker et al. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 52, 1–10 1979), Empathy Quotient (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 163–175 2004), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85 1980). Paternal care and overprotection influenced affective empathy in men, whilst maternal overprotection predicted affective empathy in women. Further, maternal care related to cognitive empathy in men, whilst none of the parental care variables related to cognitive empathy in women. Findings are discussed in relation to sex differences in childhood parenting experiences on adult cognitive and affective empathy.

El perdón ante transgresiones en las relaciones interpersonales

Through forgiveness, people reduce negative responses toward their transgressors, and are more motivated to show positive behaviors instead. Two studies were performed with the aim to approach the phenomenon of forgiveness. The first study, in which 101 university students participated, aimed to examine the different types of transgressions depending on the type of relationship (friendship vs. couple) and gender. In the second study (n = 201 participants from general population), we studied the influence of gender, emotional, and motivational variables on forgiveness after infidelity betrayal. Results of the first study showed that infidelity is perceived as the most serious transgression. In the second study, results showed that in unfaithful transgression, women perceived the consequences as more serious, felt more negative emotions and showed greater empathy and dependency than men. Also, empathy in men as well as dependency in women were found to predict revenge, and resulted in less forgiveness. Finally, results showed that in both men and women, the negative affect mediated the relationship between severity of transgression and motivation to retaliate as a result of infidelity.

P.1.a.027 Second-to-fourth digit ratio is associated with cognitive empathy in men depending on common polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene

Empathy is the ability to recognize and share in the emotions of others. It can be considered a multifaceted concept with cognitive and emotional aspects. Little is known regarding the underlying neurochemistry of empathy and in the current study we used a neurogenetic approach to explore possible brain neurotransmitter pathways contributing to cognitive and emotional empathy. Both the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and the arginine vasopressin receptor 1a (AVPR1a) genes contribute to social cognition in both animals and humans and hence are prominent candidates for contributing to empathy. The following research examined the associations between polymorphisms in these two genes and individual differences in emotional and cognitive empathy in a sample of 367 young adults. Intriguingly, we found that emotional empathy was associated solely with OXTR, whereas cognitive empathy was associated solely with AVPR1a. Moreover, no interaction was observed between the two genes and measures of empathy. The current findings contribute to our understanding of the distinct neurogenetic pathways involved in cognitive and emotional empathy and underscore the pervasive role of both oxytocin and vasopressin in modulating human emotions.

EEG Activity during Viewing of Neutral and Emotionally Colored Pictures by Men and Women with Different Levels of Empathy

We compared the characteristics of EEG in 14 men and 32 women, 18 to 21 years old, in the course of viewing neutral and emotionally (negatively, positively, and erotically) colored pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS); women were tested during various phases of the ovulatory cycle. We demonstrated that changes in zonal characteristics of the main EEG rhythms related to perception of pictures of all types by men and women differed significantly from each other. In men, the EEG patterns upon the action of the above-mentioned stimuli were most similar to those observed in women during the follicular phase of the ovulatory cycle. In general, changes in EEG in the course of viewing pictures of all types were more significant in women as compared with men. For men, perception of erotically colored and negative pictures exerted greater activating effects. We found certain specificity of EEG patterns depending on the level of empathy of the tested subjects. High levels of empathy in men and women were associated with higher spectral powers of the beta and theta EEG rhythms, respectively. In women, the ability to show empathy was manifested in a different manner depending on the level of sex hormones; the presented visual stimuli could not evoke any emotional resonance in women during the follicular phase but began to evoke activation during the luteal phase.

Social attention, affective arousal and empathy in men with Klinefelter syndrome (47,XXY): evidence from eyetracking and skin conductance.

Individuals with an extra X chromosome (Klinefelter syndrome) are at risk for problems in social functioning and have an increased vulnerability for autism traits. In the search for underlying mechanisms driving this increased risk, this study focused on social attention, affective arousal and empathy. Seventeen adults with XXY and 20 non-clinical controls participated in this study. Eyetracking was used to investigate social attention, as expressed in visual scanning patterns in response to the viewing of empathy evoking video clips. Skin conductance levels, reflecting affective arousal, were recorded continuously during the clips as well. Empathic skills, i.e. participants' understanding of own and others' emotions in response to the clips was also assessed. Results showed reduced empathic understanding, decreased visual fixation to the eye region, but increased affective arousal in individuals with Klinefelter syndrome. We conclude that individuals with XXY tend to avoid the eye region. Considering the increased affective arousal, we speculate that this attentional deployment strategy may not be sufficient to successfully downregulate affective hyper-responsivity. As increased affective arousal was related to reduced empathic ability, we hypothesize that own affective responses to social cues play an important role in difficulties in understanding the feelings and intentions of others. This knowledge may help in the identification of risk factors for psychopathology and targets for treatment.

Deepening Empathy in Men Using a Musical Chronology and the Emerging Life Song

The authors illustrate the use of music as a tool for counseling men. They describe a creative intervention—a Musical Chronology and the Emerging Life Song—and illustrate it through a case vignette. The intervention method blends music with narrative therapy, cognitive therapy, and relational cultural theory. This intervention may help men who are challenged in their empathic capacity revisit developmental milestones, gain compassion for themselves and others, and connect with their emotions and beliefs via music.

Decreased empathic sensitivity for distressed infants in neurotic adults: The mediating role of remembered parental rejection

The primary purpose of the present research was to determine whether negative reactions to infant distress in neurotic adults are mediated by representations of same sex parental rejection. Participants were 308 adult males and females who completed questionnaires assessing their personality and their representations of their parents’ care-giving from childhood. Participants also reported their own empathic reactions toward emotionally distressed and non-distressed infants. The present findings revealed that neuroticism significantly predicted a greater recall of parental rejection which, in turn, predicted decreased empathy ratings for distressed infants. In addition, recollections of father rejection mediated the relation between neuroticism and empathy in men, while recollections of maternal rejection mediated the relation between these variables in women.

Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans

Oxytocin (OT) is becoming increasingly established as a prosocial neuropeptide in humans with therapeutic potential in treatment of social, cognitive, and mood disorders. However, the potential of OT as a general facilitator of human learning and empathy is unclear. The current double-blind experiments on healthy adult male volunteers investigated first whether treatment with intranasal OT enhanced learning performance on a feedback-guided item-category association task where either social (smiling and angry faces) or nonsocial (green and red lights) reinforcers were used, and second whether it increased either cognitive or emotional empathy measured by the Multifaceted Empathy Test. Further experiments investigated whether OT-sensitive behavioral components required a normal functional amygdala. Results in control groups showed that learning performance was improved when social rather than nonsocial reinforcement was used. Intranasal OT potentiated this social reinforcement advantage and greatly increased emotional, but not cognitive, empathy in response to both positive and negative valence stimuli. Interestingly, after OT treatment, emotional empathy responses in men were raised to levels similar to those found in untreated women. Two patients with selective bilateral damage to the amygdala (monozygotic twins with congenital Urbach-Wiethe disease) were impaired on both OT-sensitive aspects of these learning and empathy tasks, but performed normally on nonsocially reinforced learning and cognitive empathy. Overall these findings provide the first demonstration that OT can facilitate amygdala-dependent, socially reinforced learning and emotional empathy in men.

Effects of Two Versions of an Empathy-Based Rape Prevention Program on Fraternity Men's Survivor Empathy, Attitudes, and Behavioral Intent to Commit Rape or Sexual Assault

Fraternity men (N = 261) at a small to midsized public university saw one of two versions of a rape prevention program or were in a control group. Program participants reported significant increases in empathy toward rape survivors and significant declines in rape myth acceptance, likelihood of raping, and likelihood of committing sexual assault. Program participants' scores significantly differed from an untreated control group in several areas. Implications for describing a male-on-male rape to increase men's empathy toward female survivors and other related attitudes are discussed.

Empathy and Attachment in Relation to Violent vs. Non-Violent Offense History Among Jail Inmates

One hundred nineteen male and 67 female violent and nonviolent offenders incarcerated in the New York City jail system completed questionnaires measuring affective and cognitive empathy, history of attachment and current attachment. They were compared to a control group of 63 males and 67 females enrolled in general equivalency diploma courses in New York City. Multiple analysis of variance was used to compare the groups and the dependent variables and the Pearson r correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between empathy and attachment. The male offenders as a whole scored higher on affective empathy than the control group with the nonviolent male offenders scoring significantly higher on affective empathy than the control group males. However, after age was used a covariate, the groups were no longer significantly different on affective empathy. No significant differences were found among the female groups on cognitive and affective empathy. There was also no relationship found for the male or female groups between empathy and history of attachment. The implication of the results for future research on empathy in criminal behavior as well as the lifecourse development of empathy in men, was discussed.