Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident

Girls exhibit greater empathy than boys following a minor accident. Joyce F. Benenson, Evelyne Gauthier & Henry Markovits. Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 7965. Apr 12 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-87214-x

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.

Discussion

Following a minor accident, 5- to 7-year-old female bystanders exhibited more empathic behavior than male bystanders. These behavioral findings, along with results from studies of brain activation26,27 and from behavioral studies with infants and young children12,16, support the ubiquitous findings that human females report experiencing greater empathy than males at all ages9. This suggests that even though facial expressions and many physiological assessments rarely yield sex differences in empathic responsivity10,13,18, it is highly likely that females do experience greater feelings of empathy which motivate them to behave in ways that display more concern for victims. Behavioral studies with real life, proximate victims and brain activation measures may be best able to identify sex differences in empathy as others have proposed1,16.

Further, it appeared that the joint condition accentuated the sex difference, though the effect only attained significance in the overall empathy score with 3 measures. The empathy score with the 4 measures was only marginally significant. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable that a condition that increases the proximity and dependence between individuals would augment human females’ investment in one another.

This study builds on behavioral studies of bystanders who witnessed a distressing event that were conducted with newborns, infants, and young children all of which provided evidence that females do experience greater empathy than males10,13,16. This study extends that finding to middle childhood using the measures developed by Caplan and Hay to study concern in older children in a naturalistic setting35. Contrary to most prior studies however, the current study included victims who were always of the same sex and who were familiar because they were classmates. Furthermore, the accident was naturalistic yet standardized, unlike several prior behavioral studies in which the accident was staged. Additionally, no external observers, particularly adults, were present, thereby reducing demand characteristics pressuring females to behave in stereotyped ways or providing authority figures who could be perceived as better able to respond to a victim’s distress. Finally, empathic concern as measured through behavior that is costly to the bystander in terms of lost time and effort provides greater validity than measures such as self-report or facial expressions.

Theoretically, females’ greater concern regarding a stressor is consistent with predictions from parental investment theory that mammalian females exhibit greater responsiveness than males to threats to their offspring2,5. Findings also resemble sex differences found in self-reports about real life contexts in which others with whom participants have close relationships experience serious adverse events7,8,36. Results from the current study suggest that even a classmate who is not a close friend who experiences a minor accident elicits sex differences in empathy.

Our findings suggest when an adverse event occurs, more females than males will be affected. This is consistent with studies showing that more women than men are concerned about hardships that befall family members, individuals in their social networks, and those for whom they are professionally responsible7,8. More females than males also would be expected to offer supportive responses to victims, entailing greater disruptions to their own lives.

Limits of the study include the relatively small number of dyads and the utilization of only a single task. Further, because no sharing of resources occurred in the current study, the expected impact of working on a joint task found in prior studies of reward distributions may have been somewhat attenuated34. Inclusion of more participants from a wider age range, and replication with a new task would enhance the study’s validity. Finally, it is possible that boys experience empathy in a way that has not been measured. In this study, most boys did cease their ongoing activity following the accident, but they engaged in few other empathic activities that we could measure.

In summary, after observing their partner’s accident, female bystanders demonstrated greater empathy than males. In contrast to the relatively consistent conclusion that no sex differences occur in empathy other than in self-reports, results suggest that it is possible to behaviorally observe sex differences in empathy using established measures.