Women know better than men what other women are thinking and feeling

In this study, the researchers found that the female volunteers got significantly better scores than the men. This didn’t come as a huge surprise, as other work has found that, on average, women are better at inferring other people’s mental states and identifying facial expressions. But the analysis also revealed that women were better at mind-reading other women than they were at reading men. Men were also slightly better at reading women than men, but they still scored lower than the female participants. Part of the explanation for women being easier to read could be that they are more emotionally expressive than men, as suggested by some past research, although a recent study found that the true gender pattern is more complex. When it comes to the superior performance of the female volunteers, this may be because women are simply better at mind-reading. Alternatively, they may be more motivated to do it. Differences in male and female friendships may be one factor that contributes to greater mind-reading skills in women, the researchers suggested. Research has found that women are more likely to share emotions with, and simply to talk more with, their female friends than men do with their male friends. When it comes to the women’s particular skill at reading other women’s thoughts, “the proposed social-cognitive mechanism and developmental factors of this bias have to be examined in following studies,” the researchers said. The team also re-analysed their data,...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Emotion Gender Social Source Type: blogs