I Feel Your Pain: Gender Differences in Empathy

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I Feel Your PainGender Differences in Empathy

• Dr. Linda Rueckert
• Department of Psychology
• Northeastern Illinois University

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Definition of empathyThe capability to share
another being's emotions and feelings.
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Types of Empathy

• Cognitive knowing what another person is
  thinking or feeling, also called Theory of Mind.
• Emotional feeling the same thing as the other
  person.

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Methods of Measuring Empathy

• Self report (e.g. It makes me feel sad to see a
  stranger in a crowd).
• Imitation of facial expression or gesture.
• Autonomic measures (GSR, heart rate).
• Brain imaging (fMRI, PET, EEG).

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Evidence for Gender Differences

• Self-reports yield highly reliable female
  advantage.
• More objective measures yield much smaller, or no
  difference.
• Baron-Cohen et al. studies of pre-natal
  testosterone correlations.
• Some brain imaging studies have shown gender
  differences in activation despite equal
  performance.

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Derntl et al. 2010
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Singer et al. (2006) Results
Women
Men
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NEIU Studies of Gender Differences in Empathy

• Rueckert Naybar, 2008 Correlation between
  right hemisphere activation and empathy.
• Rueckert Oyola, 2008 Gender differences in
  cognitive and emotional empathy.
• 2009 Capstone class Differences in emotion, and
  in empathy towards friends and enemies.

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Chimeric Faces Task
Which face is happier?
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Rueckert Naybar, 2008

• Female advantage in self-reported empathy
  (Mehrabian Epstein questionnaire).
• No gender difference in use of right hemisphere
  on chimeric faces task.
• Right-hemisphere activation on chimeric faces
  task correlated with empathy in women, not men.

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Rueckert Naybar, conclusions

• Men and women use the right hemisphere, to an
  equal extent, when judging emotional expression.
• This right hemisphere activation correlates with
  self-reported empathy only for women.
• Female advantage on empathy questionnaires may be
  due to greater emotional involvement.

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Rueckert Oyola, 2008

• Gender differences in cognitive and emotional
  empathy.
• Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI Davis,
  1983).
• Emotional Concern (EC) emotional empathy
• Perspective Taking (PT) cognitive empathy
• Fantasty (FS)
• Personal Distress (PD)

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Rueckert Oyola, 2008
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Social Neuroscience Capstone Class, 2009

• Vivian Benjamin
• Brandon Branch
• Tiffany Doan
• Juan Fonseca
• Zahra Hosseinian

• Matt Markowicz
• Annum Qureshi
• Lindsey Schreier
• Kristen Wren

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Social Neuroscience Capstone Class, 2009

• Might gender differences in self-report empathy
  scales be due to differences in self-reported
  emotion, rather than empathy?
• Does the target of the empathy make a difference?

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Social Neuroscience Capstone Class, 2009

• Davis IRI
• NEIU empathy scale
• 10 emotional scenarios
• Each scenario rated for happy, sad, anger
• Each scenario was rated for degree of emotion
  that would be felt if it happened to the subject
  themselves, to a friend, and to an enemy.

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Soc. Neuro. Class results IRI
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Soc. Neuro. Class results NEIU scale overall
emotion
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Soc. Neuro. Class Results
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Soc. Neuro. Class Results

• Empathy quotient rating given to self minus
  rating given to other person (friend or enemy) on
  each of the 10 scenarios.
• A higher score greater difference between self
  and other, ie less empathy.

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Soc. Neuro. Class Results Empathy Scores for
Friends and Enemies
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Soc. Neuro. Class Conclusions

• Female advantage in emotional empathy may be due,
  in part, to womens tendency to experience and
  report stronger emotions in general.
• Women may differentiate more between friends and
  enemy. (Congruent with results from helping
  studies).

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Questions for Future Study

• Develop more objective behavioral measures of
  empathy.
• Explain difference between our friend/enemy
  results and Singer et al.s good guy/bad guy
  results.
• Achieve a better understanding of the conditions
  under which gender differences in empathy are
  found.
• Examine the relationship between empathy and
  moral reasoning and moral behavior.

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The End!
For more information PSYC 300P, Seminar
in Social Neuroscience, Fall, 2010.
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Mind in the Eyes Task
What is this person thinking or feeling?
____ playful ____ comforting ____
irritated ____bored