Empathy!

January 21st, 2023| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

We knew it all along. Women on average are better than men at putting themselves in others’ shoes and imagining what another person is thinking or feeling. But that’s now been confirmed in a vast study across 57 countries and across all ages.

So proclaimed “Sex and Age Differences in ‘Theory Of Mind’ across 57 Countries Using the English Version of the ‘Reading The Mind In The Eyes’ Test,” published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a group from the University of Cambridge led by Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre. [Yes, he is related to Sacha, he of Borat fame: they are cousins.]

They wanted to explore the attribute formally known as “cognitive empathy.” One of the most widely used tests for gauging this is the ‘Reading The Mind In The Eyes’ test, also developed by Baron-Cohen and his cohort in the late nineties. That test asks participants to pick which of a choice of words best describes what the person in the photo is thinking or feeling, just by viewing photos of their eye region. In its revised 2001 version, it has become a well-established assessment, recommended by the National Institute of Mental Health in the US.

Earlier studies had shown women doing better than men on this test, but the all used smaller sample sizes, and fairly homogenous ones at that—not a whole lot of geographic, cultural, or age diversity in the subjects tested. This one, though, merged samples from a whopping 57 countries including a total of 305,726 English-speaking volunteers aged 16 to 70 recruited online between February 2013 and May 2019.

On a 36-item eyes test, female participants scored on average significantly higher than males in 36 countries, and had scores similar to males in 21 countries. In no country were men’s average scores significantly higher than women’s. The sex difference in average scores was seen across the lifespan, from 16 to 70 years of age. It was also confirmed in translated versions of the test, with a statistical female advantage seen in 12 of 16 countries when eight non-English versions of the test were used.

Dr David Greenberg, lead scientist on the study:

Our results provide some of the first evidence that the well-known phenomenon—that females are on average more empathic than male—is present in a wide range of countries across the globe. It’s only by using very large data sets that we can say this with confidence.”

And we can say it, too: Women are more empathetic than men!

God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27

Well, if God created males and females in his own image, then God must have feminine qualities. Does he?

Yup!

Said God about his relationship to his people:

“You neglected the Rock who begot you,
And forgot the God who gave you birth.”
Deuteronomy 32:18

“Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms ….
I led them … with bonds of love, ….
And I bent down and fed them.”
Hosea 11:3–4

“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 66:13

Hey, he is even more empathizing than females, apparently!

“Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.”
Isaiah 49:15

SOURCE: MedScape; PNAS