Emotion and Relationship Effects on Gender Differences in Empathy

Method

Participants were 60 women and 24 men. Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983). A self-rated empathy scale that is divided in to Emotional Concern (EC), Perspective Taking (PT), Fantasy (FS) and Personal Distress (PD). NEIU Empathy Scale. Includes 10 emotional scenarios (e.g. “You put money in a vending machine and nothing comes out.”) Participants rate how much happiness, sadness, and anger they would feel if each scenario happened to themselves, and how they would feel if it happened to a friend or enemy.

Results

IRI: Women scored higher than men, especially on the Emotional Concern (EC) subscale.  

NEIU Empathy Scale: Women rated their emotions stronger than men for happy and sad, regardless of the target (self, friend, enemy).

Results cont’d

Allen, J. G. & Markiewicz Haccoun, D. (1976). Sex differences in emotionality: A multidimensional approach. Human Relations, 29, 711-722. doi:10.1177/001872677602900801

Baron-Cohen, S. & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The Empathy Quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 163-175.

Blier, M. J., & Blier-Wilson, L. A. (1989). Gender differences in self-rated emotional expressiveness. Sex Roles, 21, 287-295.

Davis, M.H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113-126.

Eagly, A. H. & Crowley, M. (1986). Gender and helping behavior: A meta-analytic review of the social psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 283-308.

Eisenberg, N. & Lennon, R. (1983). Sex differences in empathy and related capacities. Psychological Bulletin 94, 100-131.

George, D., Carroll, P., Kersnick, R., & Calderon, K. (1998). Gender-related patterns of helping among friends. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 685-704.

Mehrabian, A. & Epstein, N. (1972). A measure of emotional empathy. Journal of Personality, 40, 525-543.

Mehrabian, A., Young, A.L., & Sato, S. (1988). Emotional empathy and associated individual differences. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 7, 221-240.

Reysen, S. & Ganz, E. (2006). Gender differences in helping in six U.S. cities. North American Journal of Psychology, 8, 63-68.

Rueckert, L., & Naybar, N. (2008). Gender differences in empathy: The role of the right hemisphere. Brain and Cognition, 67, 162-167. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2008.01.002

Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J. P., Stephan, K. E., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2006). Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others. Nature, 439,466-469. doi:10.1038/nature04271

Discussion

The gender by emotion interaction replicates previous studies (Allen & Haccoun, 1976; Blier & Blier-Wilson, 1989). This suggests that gender differences in self-reported empathy may be due, in part, to a tendency for women to rate their emotions as more intense, especially sadness. They may “feel sad to see a lonely stranger in a group” simply because they tend to feel more sadness in all sad situations.  The gender by other person interaction is congruent with studies showing that men are more likely to help strangers, but women are more likely to help close friends (Eagly & Crowley, 1986; George et al., 1998), and suggests that gender differences in empathy may depend on the nature of the relationship between the participant and the other person.

References

Linda Rueckert, Tiffany Doan, & Brandon Branch, Northeastern Illinois University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether gender differences in empathy reflect differences in self-rated emotion, and whether they are influenced by the nature of the target of the empathy (friend or enemy). 60 women and 24 men completed the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI; Davis, 1983) and the NEIU Empathy Scale that describes 10 emotional scenarios. Participants are asked to rate how much happiness, sadness, and anger they would feel if each of the 10 scenarios happened to themselves, and how they would feel if it happened to a friend or enemy. Women scored slightly higher on all IRI scales, but the difference was only significant on the Emotional Concern subscale. On the NEIU Empathy Scale women rated themselves as feeling more happiness and sadness than men. An empathy score was computed by subtracting, for each scenario, the rating for the other person from the rating for self. Women showed a greater difference between friend and enemy (greater empathy for friend, less for enemy,) than men.

Introduction

Numerous studies have found that women score higher on self-reported empathy (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004; Davis, 1983; Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Mehrabian et al, 1988; Rueckert & Naybar,2008). Other studies using more objective measures have reported smaller, or no, gender differences (Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983). Recent studies have suggested gender differences may vary with context (Singer et al., 2006).  Examination of most self-report questionnaires suggests they tend to focus on emotional empathy, especially negative emotions, such as sadness (e.g. “It makes me sad to see a lonely stranger in a group”; Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972). A separate line of research has found that women tend to rate themselves as feeling more sadness than men (Allen & Haccoun, 1976; Blier & Blier-Wilson, 1989). The purpose of this study was to determine whether gender differences in empathy reflect differences in self-rated sadness, and whether they are influenced by the target of the empathy (friend or enemy).

Fig. 2: Mean rating on the NEIU empathy scale, gender by emotion.

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Fig. 1: IRI; Subscale by gender. EC = Emotional Concern; PT = Perspective Taking PD = Personal Distress; FS = Fantasy

NEIU Scale Empathy Quotient: Women showed greater empathy than men for friends, less for enemies.

Fig. 3: Empathy Quotient = self – other person (friend or enemy) for the rating given to the predominant emotion on each scenario. A higher score indicates a greater difference between emotion felt for self and other, and thus less empathy.

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