Podcast: Download

I have suggested before that women are better at empathy. Now I have a major, cross-culture study to back that claim. The study looked at over 300,000 men and women in fifty-seven countries. Across all ages, and in most countries, women score much higher than men on a test that measures cognitive empathy. In most countries, women scored significantly better, and there was no country where men did better than women. The test showed a picture and words, and asked the viewer to select the word that best described what the person in the picture was thinking or feeling.

The fact that men and women have similar scores in some countries suggests there is a learned component to this. However, most of this would likely be learned at a young age, making it unlikely a man could “catch up” even if he worked diligently to do so.

I’m not saying a man can’t get better at empathy. I know I have improved a great deal. But I was ahead of most men to start with, and getting better was a valuable skill for what I do, so I was highly motivated. Unless your empathy is naturally low, or your husband’s is naturally high, you can expect hubby to seem empathy challenged for the rest of his life.

What should you do with this information? Be understanding, and give him grace. When you suspect he is missing something because he is empathy challenged, help him out. Doing that along the lines of “did you notice” would be an empathetic way to go.

~ Paul – I’m XY, and I got an empathy score of 16 out of 20

A post worth reading:

Cambridge University | Take the test ◄ How do you score?

Image Credit: © Feng Yu | stock.adobe.com
Shop Amazon ♦ Shop to give links page
We’re donation supported Thanks for your help!
This post may contain affiliate links, see my disclosure for info.