Females on average perform better than males on a 'theory of mind' test across 57 countries

Females, on average, are better than males at putting themselves in others' shoes and imagining what the other person is thinking or feeling, suggests a new study of over 300,000 people in 57 countries.

Researchers found that females, on average, score higher than males on the widely used "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test, which measures "theory of mind" (also known as "cognitive empathy"). This finding was observed across all ages and most countries.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the largest study of theory of mind to date.

A fundamental part of human social interaction and communication involves putting ourselves in other people's shoes, to imagine another person's thoughts and feelings. This is known as "theory of mind" or "cognitive empathy."

For decades, researchers have studied the development of theory of mind, from infancy to old age. One of the most widely used tests with which to study theory of mind is the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test (or Eyes Test, for short), which asks participants to pick which word best describes what the person in the photo is thinking or feeling, just by viewing photos of the eye region of the face.

The Eyes Test was first developed in 1997 by Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen and his research team at Cambridge, and was revised in 2001, and has become a well-established assessment of theory of mind. It is listed as one of two recommended tests for measuring individual differences in "Understanding Mental States" by the National Institute of Mental Health in the US.

Over the decades, many independent research studies have found that females on average score higher than males on theory of mind tests. However, most of these studies were limited to relatively small samples, without much diversity in terms of geography, culture, and/or age.

To address these shortcomings, a team of multidisciplinary researchers  has merged large samples from different online platforms to analyze data from 305,726 participants across 57 countries.

The results showed that across the 57 countries, females on average scored significantly higher than males (in 36 countries), or similar to males (in 21 countries), on the Eyes Test. Importantly, there was no country where males on average scored significantly higher than females on the Eyes Test. The on-average sex difference was seen across the lifespan, from 16 to 70 years of age. The team also confirmed this on-average sex difference in three independent datasets and on non-English versions of the Eyes Test, spanning eight languages.

The new results provide some of the first evidence that the well-known phenomenon—that females are on average more empathic than males—is present in wide range of countries across the globe. It's only by using very large data sets that scientists can say this with confidence.

Greenberg, David M., Sex and age differences in "theory of mind" across 57 countries using the English version of the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2022385119. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022385119

The test: www.yourbraintype.com