Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident

Abstract Hundreds of studies find that girls and women report feeling greater empathy than boys and men in response to adverse events befalling others. Despite this, few non-self-report measures demonstrate similar sex differences. This produces the oft-cited conclusion that to conform to societal e...

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Autores principales:	Joyce F. Benenson, Evelyne Gauthier, Henry Markovits
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/42ef3ba238c54d18990966808fd04cc8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:42ef3ba238c54d18990966808fd04cc82021-12-02T14:26:26ZGirls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident10.1038/s41598-021-87214-x2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/42ef3ba238c54d18990966808fd04cc82021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87214-xhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Hundreds of studies find that girls and women report feeling greater empathy than boys and men in response to adverse events befalling others. Despite this, few non-self-report measures demonstrate similar sex differences. This produces the oft-cited conclusion that to conform to societal expectations of appropriate sex-typed behavior females report higher levels of empathy. Several studies of sex differences in areas of brain activation and on infants’ and young children’s behavior however provide suggestive findings that self-reports reflect actual underlying sex differences in experiencing concern about others. We demonstrate using behavioral indices that females experience more empathy than males after witnessing an adverse event befall a same-sex classmate. In our study, one member of a pair experienced a minor accident on the way to constructing a tower while a bystander observed. We measured whether bystanders ceased their ongoing activity, looked at the victim, waited for the victim to recover from the accident, and actively intervened to help the victim. Female more than male bystanders engaged in these activities. These behavioral results suggest that an adverse event produces different subjective experiences in females than males that motivate objectively different behaviors, consistent with findings from self-report measures of empathy.Joyce F. BenensonEvelyne GauthierHenry MarkovitsNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Joyce F. Benenson Evelyne Gauthier Henry Markovits Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
description	Abstract Hundreds of studies find that girls and women report feeling greater empathy than boys and men in response to adverse events befalling others. Despite this, few non-self-report measures demonstrate similar sex differences. This produces the oft-cited conclusion that to conform to societal expectations of appropriate sex-typed behavior females report higher levels of empathy. Several studies of sex differences in areas of brain activation and on infants’ and young children’s behavior however provide suggestive findings that self-reports reflect actual underlying sex differences in experiencing concern about others. We demonstrate using behavioral indices that females experience more empathy than males after witnessing an adverse event befall a same-sex classmate. In our study, one member of a pair experienced a minor accident on the way to constructing a tower while a bystander observed. We measured whether bystanders ceased their ongoing activity, looked at the victim, waited for the victim to recover from the accident, and actively intervened to help the victim. Female more than male bystanders engaged in these activities. These behavioral results suggest that an adverse event produces different subjective experiences in females than males that motivate objectively different behaviors, consistent with findings from self-report measures of empathy.
format	article
author	Joyce F. Benenson Evelyne Gauthier Henry Markovits
author_facet	Joyce F. Benenson Evelyne Gauthier Henry Markovits
author_sort	Joyce F. Benenson
title	Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
title_short	Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
title_full	Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
title_fullStr	Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
title_full_unstemmed	Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
title_sort	girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/42ef3ba238c54d18990966808fd04cc8
work_keys_str_mv	AT joycefbenenson girlsexhibitgreaterempathythanboysfollowingaminoraccident AT evelynegauthier girlsexhibitgreaterempathythanboysfollowingaminoraccident AT henrymarkovits girlsexhibitgreaterempathythanboysfollowingaminoraccident
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Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident

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