Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25236781›Full record

ReviewNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2014

Empathy: gender effects in brain and behavior.

Leonardo Christov-Moore, Elizabeth A Simpson, Gino Coudé, Kristina Grigaityte, Marco Iacoboni, Pier Francesco Ferrari

Open access · greenAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 350 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
350citing papers in PubMed, 7 pooled it
40.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

350 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,069 citations in OpenAlex.

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290 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.

Leonardo Christov-MooreAhmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Brain Research Institute, UCLA (L C-M, KG, MI), Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (MI), 660 Charles Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Elizabeth A SimpsonDipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, via Volturno 39, 43125 Parma, Italy; Eunice Kennedy Shriver, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, 16701 Elmer School Road, Dickerson, MD 20842, USA.
Gino CoudéDipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, via Volturno 39, 43125 Parma, Italy.
Kristina GrigaityteAhmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Brain Research Institute, UCLA (L C-M, KG, MI), Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (MI), 660 Charles Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Marco IacoboniAhmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Brain Research Institute, UCLA (L C-M, KG, MI), Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (MI), 660 Charles Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Pier Francesco FerrariDipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, via Volturno 39, 43125 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: pierfrancesco.ferrari@unipr.it.
Allen Institute for Brain Science · USUniversity of Parma · IT

Funding

Project IV: Investigating the Mirror Neuron System in austism spectrum disorderP01HD064653 · NICHD · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · PI FOX, NATHAN A · 2010 to 2020
$11.9M
Increasing empathy to improve mental healthR21MH097178 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI IACOBONI, MARCO · 2012 to 2013
$427k
NICHD NIH HHS P01 HD064653NICHD NIH HHS P01HD064653NIMH NIH HHS 1R21MH097178NIMH NIH HHS R21 MH097178
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Evidence suggests that there are differences in the capacity for empathy between males and females. However, how deep do these differences go? Stereotypically, females are portrayed as more nurturing and empathetic, while males are portrayed as less emotional and more cognitive. Some authors suggest that observed gender differences might be largely due to cultural expectations about gender roles. However, empathy has both evolutionary and developmental precursors, and can be studied using implicit measures, aspects that can help elucidate the respective roles of culture and biology. This article reviews evidence from ethology, social psychology, economics, and neuroscience to show that there are fundamental differences in implicit measures of empathy, with parallels in development and evolution. Studies in nonhuman animals and younger human populations (infants/children) offer converging evidence that sex differences in empathy have phylogenetic and ontogenetic roots in biology and are not merely cultural byproducts driven by socialization. We review how these differences may have arisen in response to males' and females' different roles throughout evolution. Examinations of the neurobiological underpinnings of empathy reveal important quantitative gender differences in the basic networks involved in affective and cognitive forms of empathy, as well as a qualitative divergence between the sexes in how emotional information is integrated to support decision making processes. Finally, the study of gender differences in empathy can be improved by designing studies with greater statistical power and considering variables implicit in gender (e.g., sexual preference, prenatal hormone exposure). These improvements may also help uncover the nature of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in which one sex is more vulnerable to compromised social competence associated with impaired empathy.

Indexed as

EmpathySex CharacteristicsAnimalsBehaviorBrainFemaleHumansMaleContagionDevelopmentEmotionEvolutionGenderHelpingMimicryMirror neuron systemOntogenyProsocialSex

Identifiers

PMID25236781
PMCPMC5110041
OpenAlexW1965401478

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.