Gender differences in empathic responses to others’ economic payoffs: an event-related potentials study

I Can But I Shall Not Always Be Empathic

“…Our results from Study 2 are compatible with this theory. It was shown that women reported higher empathy levels than men in both conditions, but that men tended to increase their empathy levels under the cognitive load more than women, who remained stable, a result compatible with previous studies (Bajouk & Hansenne, 2019; Jie et al., 2019a). Since participants knew that empathy was assessed in the study, these stereotypes could involuntarily motivate women to appear more empathic and men to hold back their empathy (Baez et al., 2017; Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Ickes et al., 2000; Klein & Hodges, 2001; Lewis et al., 2011).…”

“…Another interesting result concerns the tendency towards sex differences that was observed in Study 2 (in the task and self-reported questionnaire), while no sex effect was found in Study 1. The fact that sex effects were not found in both studies is in line with previous findings, such that there is a lack of generalizability of sex differences, which are very inconsistent across studies and conditions, with some finding women to be more empathic and others finding no difference (e.g., Baez et al., 2017; Batchelder et al., 2017; Christov-Moore et al., 2014; Ihnen et al., 2009; Jie et al., 2019a; Rueckert et al., 2011; Simon et al., 2006). While these were marginally significant results, sex differences have been a matter of debate in the field of empathy, rendering these results interesting to discuss.…”

“…This could suggest that men’s empathy could usually be under rated in self-reported tasks, rather than being boosted by the cognitive load (Baez et al., 2017; Michalska et al., 2013). This would also support the idea that men and women could possess similar ability to empathize, but a different propensity to deploy it in everyday contexts (e.g., Andreoni & Vesterlund, 2001; Jie et al., 2019a; Lewis et al., 2011; Singer et al., 2006). It is even possible that cognitive processes, underlying the cognitive component of empathy, could define the propensity to empathize, while affective processes would be at the core of empathic ability (De Waal & Preston, 2017; Jauniaux et al., 2019).…”

“…However, some specific studies found that the cerebral regions that are recruited during empathy tasks in men are more related to externally focused processes, while they are more related to emotions and interoception in women (Derntl et al., 2010; Moriguchi et al., 2014). Using EEG, some studies found no gender differences in ERP responses (e.g., Decety et al., 2015), while Jie et al. (2019a) found that women were more susceptible than men to facial expressions at the early stage of empathy (i.e., affective component), as indicated with more negative N2 amplitudes.…”

“…(2019a) found that women were more susceptible than men to facial expressions at the early stage of empathy (i.e., affective component), as indicated with more negative N2 amplitudes. Interestingly, some studies report than men’s empathy is more sensitive to contextual modulations, suggesting that women’s empathic responses would be elicited more automatically by others’ emotions across situations (Jie et al., 2019a; Singer et al., 2006). Amongst studies using self-report measures or neuroimaging methods, gender differences for empathy are sometimes found only on the affective dimension of empathy, while others report effects on affective and cognitive dimensions (Baez et al., 2017; Batchelder et al., 2017; Christov-Moore & Iacoboni, 2019; Derntl et al., 2010; Gardner et al., 2012; Lucas-Molina et al., 2017; Reniers et al., 2011; Rueckert et al., 2011; Van der Graaff et al., 2014; Wölfer et al., 2012).…”