Gender Differences in Empathy
Anecdotally, females are thought of as the more empathetic gender and this belief has been found empirically (Schulte-Rüther, et al., 2008). Females have been found to be faster than males at recognizing both positive and negative emotions from facial cues (Hampson, van Anders, & Mullin, 2006) and in labelling these facial expressions (Montagne, Kessels, Frigerio, de Haan, & Perrett, 2005). Female toddlers appear to exhibit higher sympathetic concern for victims of physical injury than male toddlers as measured by expressions such as facial, vocal, or gestural–postural expression (Knafo, Zahn-Waxler, Van Hulle, Robinson, & Rhee, 2008; Zahn-Waxler, et al., 1992).
Yet, another study using the same age group and measures found no gender differences in response to an individual in pain or experiencing sadness (Bandstra, Chambers, McGrath, & Moore, 2011). Further studies have also found no gender differences in yawn contagion (Norscia & Palagi, 2011), emotion understanding (Pons & Harris, 2005), or in concern (Decety, Michalska, & Kinzler, 2012) and subsequent prosocial behaviour (Vaish, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2009). In addition, no gender differences have been found in theory of mind in adults (Ketelaars, et al., 2010) or children (Lackner, et al., 2010).
It has been suggested, however, that the particular measure used to evaluate empathy may greatly influence whether gender differences are found (Bandstra, et al., 2011). Specifically, facial indices are not the most reliable way to measure empathy (Bandstra, et al., 2011) and self-report and observer-report measures of empathy may be influenced by social desirability bias (Decety & Svetlova, 2011).
As an example, a study reported that, while females gave more extreme self-report ratings of fear and disgust than males to pictures of mutilation and contamination, there were no gender differences in overall brain activity during the viewing of the pictures (Schienle, Schäfer, Stark, Walter, & Vaitl, 2005). Thus, as physiological measures are more reliable, it is important to see if gender differences are present in studies using measures such as neuroimaging.
Overall, while the cortical areas activated during emotion processing appear to differ in females and males (with females showing more brainstem activation, and males showing more lateralization, during emotional processing; Wager, et al., 2003), no significant gender differences in empathy have been found in neuroimaging research on children (Decety & Michalska, 2010; Decety & Svetlova, 2011) or in a recent meta-analysis of neuroimaging research on adults (Lamm, et al., 2011).
