•.
Emotion and Relationship Effects on Gender Differences in Empathy
Linda Rueckert, Tiffany Doan, & Brandon Branch, Northeastern Illinois University
Abstract
NEIU Empathy Scale: Women rated their emotions stronger than
men for happy and sad, regardless of the target (self, friend, enemy).
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).
30
25
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.
Rating
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.
Results cont’d
Method
20
Men
Women
15
10
Happy
Sad
Angry
Fig. 2: Mean rating on the NEIU empathy scale, gender by emotion.
NEIU Scale Empathy Quotient: Women showed greater empathy
than men for friends, less for enemies.
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.
25
Eagly, A. H. & Crowley, M. (1986). Gender and helping behavior: A meta-analytic review of the
social psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 283-308.
20
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.
15
Mehrabian, A. & Epstein, N. (1972). A measure of emotional empathy. Journal of Personality,
40, 525-543.
Men
10
Women
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).
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.
Allen, J. G. & Markiewicz Haccoun, D. (1976). Sex differences in emotionality: A
multidimensional approach. Human Relations, 29, 711-722. doi:10.1177/001872677602900801
IRI: Women scored higher than men, especially on the Emotional
Concern (EC) subscale.
Score
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).
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.
References
Results
Introduction
Discussion
Mehrabian, A., Young, A.L., & Sato, S. (1988). Emotional empathy and associated individual
differences. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 7, 221-240.
5
EC
PT
PD
FS
Reysen, S. & Ganz, E. (2006). Gender differences in helping in six U.S. cities. North American
Journal of Psychology, 8, 63-68.
Fig. 1: IRI; Subscale by gender.
EC = Emotional Concern; PT = Perspective Taking
PD = Personal Distress; FS = Fantasy
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.
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, 439,466469. doi:10.1038/nature04271