Correlations between measures in Study 1.

Women often score higher on average than men on self-report measures of empathy. However, self-report estimates of empathic tendencies and other attributes could be susceptible to a range of biases. For instance, participants might respond in a manner that is socially desirable and aligns with gender stereotypes about empathic abilities. We examined whether gender differences in self-reported empathy were affected by a) manipulating task instructions or b) priming with fictive narratives describing gender differences as either fixed or malleable. In Study 1, participants (N = 154) completed questionnaire measures of empathy, social desirability and acceptance of stereotyping. Contrary to our prediction, gender differences in self-reported empathy were not larger when participants were told that we were measuring ‘empathy’. However, in both genders, average scores were higher for empathic concern in the ‘empathy’ condition than in the control condition, which suggests that describing the task as measuring empathy encouraged both male and female participants to present themselves as showing concern for others. Also, participants who scored higher on social desirability scored higher on empathic concern, suggesting a link between motivation to conform to social expectations and self-reported affective empathy. In Study 2, participants (N = 155) completed questionnaire measures of empathy, personality and gender essentialism. Gender differences in self-reported empathy were not larger in the condition that primed gender essentialism. However, women who scored high on empathic concern were more likely to align themselves with feminine adjectives, suggesting a link between self-reported consideration for others and feminine attributes. In both studies, on average, women scored significantly higher than men on self-reported empathic tendencies. Although the experimental manipulations did not impact empathy scores in either study, self-reported empathy appears to be related to social desirability and broader social attitudes, which suggests that a range of cultural and social factors might contribute to gender differences in empathy.

在共情的自我报告测评中，女性的平均得分通常高于男性。然而，共情倾向及其他特质的自我报告评估可能易受多种偏差影响。例如，参与者可能会以符合社会期望、契合关于共情能力的性别刻板印象的方式作答。本研究旨在探究自我报告的共情性别差异是否受以下两种操作影响：a）任务指令操纵；b）以虚构叙事启动，该叙事将性别差异描述为固定不变或可塑可变的。
在研究1中，154名参与者完成了共情、社会期许性以及刻板印象接纳度的问卷测评。与我们的预测相悖，当告知参与者本次实验旨在测评‘共情’时，自我报告共情的性别差异并未被放大。但在两种性别群体中，‘共情’指导条件下的共情关怀得分均高于对照组，这表明将任务描述为共情测评，会促使男性和女性参与者都表现出更倾向于展现对他人关怀的自我形象。此外，社会期许性得分更高的参与者，其共情关怀得分也更高，这表明遵从社会期望的动机与自我报告的情感共情之间存在关联。
在研究2中，155名参与者完成了共情、人格特质以及性别本质主义（gender essentialism）的问卷测评。在启动性别本质主义的实验条件下，自我报告共情的性别差异并未被放大。但共情关怀得分较高的女性，更倾向于将自身与女性化形容词相绑定，这表明自我报告的对他人关怀与女性化特质之间存在关联。
两项研究均显示，女性在自我报告的共情倾向上的平均得分显著高于男性。尽管两项研究中的实验操纵均未对共情得分产生影响，但自我报告的共情似乎与社会期许性及更广泛的社会态度相关，这表明多种文化与社会因素可能是共情性别差异的成因。