Men, women...who cares? A populationbased study on sex differences and gender roles in empathy and moral cognition
Men, women...who cares? A populationbased study on sex differences and gender roles in empathy and moral cognition
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0179336
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发表时间：
2017-06-20
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Ibanez, Agustin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Baez, Sandra;Flichtentrei, Daniel;Ibanez, Agustin
关于同理心的性别差异的研究结果喜忧参半。虽然实验和神经心理学的措施没有一致的性别效应，自我报告的数据一致表明，更大的同理心的妇女。然而，现有的结果主要来自于样本相对较小的单独人群，这可能会夸大效应量，并阻碍两个经验语料库之间的可比性。为了阐明这个问题，我们进行了两项大规模的研究。首先，我们研究了在一个大样本（n = 10,802）中，当用实验性的对疼痛的共情范式测量共情时，是否会出现性别差异。此外，我们还考察了共情与道德判断的关系。在第二项研究中，子样本（n = 334）完成了自我报告的共情问卷。结果表明，在实验范式中存在一些性别差异，但影响量很小。相反，女性确实通过自我报告将自己描绘成更具同理心。此外，功利主义的道德困境的反应是不太常见的女性，虽然这些差异也有小的影响大小。这些发现表明，共情的性别差异在很大程度上是由评估措施驱动的。特别是，自我报告可能会引起偏见，导致个人采取性别角色陈规定型观念。对测量工具在这一领域的作用的认识可能会磨练我们对同理心，性别差异和性别角色之间联系的理解。
Research on sex differences in empathy has revealed mixed findings. Whereas experimental and neuropsychological measures show no consistent sex effect, self-report data consistently indicates greater empathy in women. However, available results mainly come from separate populations with relatively small samples, which may inflate effect sizes and hinder comparability between both empirical corpora. To elucidate the issue, we conducted two large-scale studies. First, we examined whether sex differences emerge in a large population- based sample (n = 10,802) when empathy is measured with an experimental empathyfor- pain paradigm. Moreover, we investigated the relationship between empathy and moral judgment. In the second study, a subsample (n = 334) completed a self-report empathy questionnaire. Results showed some sex differences in the experimental paradigm, but with minuscule effect sizes. Conversely, women did portray themselves as more empathic through self-reports. In addition, utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas were less frequent in women, although these differences also had small effect sizes. These findings suggest that sex differences in empathy are highly driven by the assessment measure. In particular, self-reports may induce biases leading individuals to assume gender-role stereotypes. Awareness of the role of measurement instruments in this field may hone our understanding of the links between empathy, sex differences, and gender roles.