How about some empathy?
Illustration of two figures (Photo: ShutterStock)
Make a surprised face: a new joint study by Haifa University, Cambridge University and Bar Ilan University among over 300,000 male and female subjects from 57 countries found that women are more empathetic than men.
So far, previous studies have shown that women are more empathetic than men in very small and very local samples, which has not allowed researchers to draw universal conclusions from them.
The findings of the present study show that this is a cross-cultural human phenomenon.
"The differences between women and men in regards to the ability to see and deeply understand the people standing in front of them carry many consequences in diverse social contexts," said Prof. Ahmed Abu Akel from the University of Haifa, one of the authors of the study.
What is empathy?
Empathy is a central mechanism in understanding the other that helps us feel the emotion of the other and participate with him in his hardships in order to know and feel the need to help him.
Previous behavioral and brain studies have found that empathy-related activities are regulated differently in men and women according to preferences acquired through social interactions using different brain regions.
One of the most common tests in science to examine levels of mental empathy in humans is the "reading thoughts through the eyes" test, a test through which inner states of mind are identified by looking at the eyes and the area around them.
As mentioned, over the years studies have found with the help of the "mind reading through the eyes" test that the level of empathy in women is on average higher than men, but these studies were limited in terms of the number of subjects, and most importantly - they were conducted almost exclusively in Western countries.
Do you see the empathy in the eyes? (Photo: ShutterStock)
In the current study published in the prestigious journal PNAS, which was led by Dr. David Greenberg from Bar Ilan University and the University of Cambridge, Prof. Abu Akel from the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Haifa, along with a team of researchers from Cambridge University, Harvard University and Washington University, participated no less From 305,736 participants from 57 countries in the age range of 16-70, who performed the "reading the mind through the eyes" test and in addition the participants in the study filled out cognitive questionnaires.
The results of the study show that in most countries (36 out of 57) the women on average recognized the emotions better - which indicates higher levels of empathy.
The country where the biggest difference between women's and men's scores is found is Pakistan, followed by Nigeria, Greece and Poland.
Israel is placed 41st out of 57 countries with the same score differences as Denmark, China, Sweden and Brazil.
The analysis of the differences and gaps shows that in countries that are defined as individualistic, where the individual is at the center, for example Western countries, the gaps between men and women are small.
In collectivist countries, where social cohesion is at the center, for example, East Asian countries, the gaps in favor of women are greater.
According to the researchers, the mechanism that causes these cultural differences is still unclear.
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The study also shows that in the age range of 16-20 there was a significant increase each year in empathic abilities both among women and among men (according to the researchers, empathic ability develops at an earlier age, however people from the age of 16 participated in the study).
After that, there was a decrease among both sexes in the ability to think empathically, where at age 58 the decrease, although minimal, is steeper among men at a rate of 0.15% per year and among women the decrease is more moderate, at a rate of 0.05% per year - that is, starting at age 58, The rate of decline in men is three times higher than in women.
"During adolescence, the brain is still in the process of construction, it has not matured and the neural skills are not decisive and additional changes that appear after the 1950s add an explanation to the dynamism in our ability to think empathically," said Prof. Abu Akel.
Better social sense
Based on the analysis of the cognitive questionnaires, the researchers calculated a measure called "D-score": a continuum with systemic thinking on one side and empathic thinking on the other.
According to the researchers, a person who has a systemic mindset is a person who will look for patterns and schemes in everything and will try to manage his life in a more 'regular' way, while a person with an empathetic mindset will be much more attentive to the environment and the feelings of the people around him.
Corresponding to the results in the empathy tests, also in this index it was found that men have a more systemic thinking, compared to women who showed more empathic thinking.
"The findings of our research show that women are sharper in understanding the emotions of others. They are better at relating more correct thoughts to others and, in addition, they have a better social sense. If until today it could be said that this is a cultural characteristic related to socialization unique to Western countries, the current research allows us To state that while the cultural context has an effect, there are still fundamental differences between women and men throughout all human societies," the researchers concluded.
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empathy