Gender Differences of Empathy

Abstract

This review provides a brief introduction to the research of empathy, focusing on the differences of genders and the reason why there are such differences. Empathy is defined as the propensity of "share and understand other's feelings during interpersonal interaction", which includes cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Empathy has no gender differences in the preschool stage. During the stage of primary and secondary school, gender differences can be found. The gender differences of empathy are related to two main factors. One factor is the degree of physiological maturity. As we grow older, hormone are different between female and male. Female have more oxytocin, which is positive to emotional empathy. While male have more testosterone, which is negative related to cognitive empathy. Consequently, gender differences of empathy begin to appear. The other factor is the gender role. The orientation of woman's gender role is focusing on others, which is directly related to empathy. However, the orientation of man's gender role is focusing on justice and equity, which has no relation to empathy. After acquiring the gender role, man and woman have differences in empathy and especially in emotional empathy. Although much progress has been made in the field of differences of empathy development, much work should be done in the future. On the theory construction, we can try to distinguish empathy by the dimension of capacity and disposition. On the visual angle, we can study gender differences of empathy through the interaction of age, culture and gender. Lastly, we should empathize the influencing factors of empathy in our research. 共情指的是个体在与人交往的过程中共享并理解他人的情绪状态的倾向,包括认知共情和情绪共情两种成分。共情在学前阶段没有性别差异。进入中小学阶段以后, 共情出现了性别差异。一方面,共情的性别差异与个体自身的生理成熟有关。随着年龄增长,两性逐渐趋向生理成熟,荷尔蒙分泌增加并出现差异,其中催产素有助 于情绪共情,睾丸酮则与认知共情有负相关,两性的共情水平也因此有了显著差异。另一方面,共情的性别差异与社会性别角色倾向有关。女性的性别角色以关注他 人为导向,与共情有直接相关,男性的性别角色以关注公平公正为导向,与共情没有相关。当两性习得各自的性别角色以后,他们的共情表现就出现了差异,这一差 异在情绪共情方面较为突出。有关共情性别差异的研究虽然取得了丰富的成果,但仍然有进一步深入挖掘的空间,未来的研究需要在视角上注重从年龄、性别和文化 交互作用的角度进行考察,在理论上考虑从能力和倾向性的维度区分共情,在内容上丰富对影响性别差异的各项因素的研究。