Are Gender Differences in Empathy Due to Differences in Emotional Reactivity英文文献资料.docVIP

Psychology 2011. Vol.2, No.6, 574-578 Copyright ? 2011 SciRes. DOI:10.4236/psych.2011.26088 Are Gender Differences in Empathy Due to Differences in Emotional Reactivity? Linda Rueckert, Brandon Branch, Tiffany Doan Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, USA. Email: L-Rueckert@ Received May 17 , 2011; revised June 21 , 2011; accepted July 29 , 2011. th st th The purpose of this study was to determine whether gender differences in empathy reflect differences in self- rated emotion, and whether they are influenced by the nature of the target of the empathy (friend or enemy). 24 men and 36 women were asked to rate how much happiness, sadness, and anger they would feel if each of ten scenarios happened to themselves, and how they would feel if it happened to a friend or enemy. Overall, women rated themselves as feeling more happiness and sadness than men, whether the event happened to themselves, or to a friend or enemy. This suggests gender differences in self-reported empathy may be due to differences in general emotional responsiveness. An empathy score was computed by subtracting, for each scenario, the rating for the other person from the rating for self. Women showed a greater difference between friend and enemy than men. Keywords: Empathy, Sex Differences, Emotion Are Gender Differences in Empathy Due to Differences in Emotional Reactivity? overall gender differences (Lamm, Decety, Singer, 2011). However, some studies have found significant gender differ- ences under specific conditions. For example, Singer, Seymour, O’Doherty, Stephan, Dolan, Frith (2006) used functional MRI to measure brain activity while participants received mild electric shocks or witnessed a confederate receiving a similar shock. They manipulated participants’ feelings toward the con- federates by having them play a “pri