{"id":13234,"date":"2026-02-17T12:58:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=13234"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T09:11:17","slug":"study-women-are-not-genetically-more-empathetic-than-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/study-women-are-not-genetically-more-empathetic-than-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Women are not genetically more empathetic than men"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">The long-standing stereotype that women are naturally more empathetic than men is not supported by scientific research. It turns out that empathy is not an innate and unchangeable trait, but rather a skill shaped by social environment and upbringing.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">Genetic studies confirm that genes account for only <b data-path-to-node=\"4\" data-index-in-node=\"52\">10%<\/b> of the variance in human empathy levels. Most importantly, scientists have failed to find an &#8220;empathy gene&#8221; that is dependent on biological sex.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">The difference between men and women primarily emerges in childhood, when girls are encouraged to be nurturing and expressive, while boys are pushed toward toughness and emotional restraint.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Experiments have shown that empathy is a highly flexible trait. For instance, when men were offered financial incentives for participating in a study or were told that being empathetic leads to success, their scores equaled those of women.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">These experimental findings suggest that the expression of empathy often depends on <b data-path-to-node=\"7\" data-index-in-node=\"84\">motivation<\/b>; people are more empathetic when they feel it is expected of them by society or when they receive specific recognition for it.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">Breaking these myths is critically important for both sexes, as existing stereotypes create artificial barriers in both career and personal development:<\/p>\n<ul data-path-to-node=\"9\">\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9,0,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"9,0,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">For women:<\/b> An overemphasis on &#8220;natural&#8221; empathy is often perceived as a &#8220;soft&#8221; trait, which subconsciously hinders their perception as strong leaders. This persists because of the prevailing societal notion that a leader must be exclusively dominant and stern.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"9,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">For men:<\/b> The harmful stereotype of emotional suppression carries even heavier consequences. When boys are conditioned from childhood to withhold their emotions, it increases the risk of social isolation and loneliness, directly impacting their mental health and social well-being.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">The scientific conclusion is clear: empathy is not a static given or an instinct unique to one sex. It is a <b data-path-to-node=\"10\" data-index-in-node=\"108\">learnable skill<\/b> that develops throughout one&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20260213-are-women-naturally-more-empathetic-than-men\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The long-standing stereotype that women are naturally more empathetic than men is not supported by scientific research. It turns out that empathy is not an innate and unchangeable trait, but rather a skill shaped by social environment and upbringing. Genetic studies confirm that genes account for only 10% of the variance in human empathy levels. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1594,1587],"tags":[4419],"class_list":["post-13234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-research","tag-empathetic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13237,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13234\/revisions\/13237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}