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Age-related sex differences in explicit measures of empathy do not predict brain responses across childhood and adolescence

Overview of attention for article published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, August 2012
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (77th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 news outlet
twitter
42 X users
facebook
3 Facebook pages
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
googleplus
1 Google+ user

Citations

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131 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
246 Mendeley
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Title
Age-related sex differences in explicit measures of empathy do not predict brain responses across childhood and adolescence
Published in
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, August 2012
DOI 10.1016/j.dcn.2012.08.001
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kalina J. Michalska, Katherine D. Kinzler, Jean Decety

Abstract

Behavioral research indicates that human females are more empathic than males, a disparity that widens from childhood to adulthood. Nevertheless, the extent to which such sex differences are an artifact of self-report indices is unclear. The present study compared age-related sex differences in both self-report and neurophysiological measures of empathic arousal, a primary building block of empathy. Participants included sixty-five 4-17-year-old children (mean 11.5±3.5 years) who completed the Bryant Empathy Scale, and were scanned while viewing animated clips depicting people being hurt. Female participants scored higher than males on self-reported dispositional empathy, a difference that increased with age. In contrast, no sex-related differential changes were detected in hemodynamic responses or in pupil dilation, with no interaction between sex and age. Results suggest a dissociation between explicit ratings and neurophysiological measures of empathic arousal. Past observed sex differences in empathy may reflect females' greater willingness to report empathic experiences. Findings are also discussed in terms of discrepancies in the methods used to assess affective responding and how they relate to the multi-faceted construct of empathy.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 42 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 246 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 2 <1%
Netherlands 1 <1%
Chile 1 <1%
Turkey 1 <1%
Ireland 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
France 1 <1%
New Zealand 1 <1%
Other 3 1%
Unknown 233 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 45 18%
Student > Bachelor 40 16%
Student > Master 31 13%
Researcher 25 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 23 9%
Other 43 17%
Unknown 39 16%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 121 49%
Neuroscience 16 7%
Medicine and Dentistry 15 6%
Social Sciences 10 4%
Philosophy 7 3%
Other 27 11%
Unknown 50 20%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 43. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 June 2022.
All research outputs
#965,512
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
#64
of 1,022 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,267
of 187,950 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
#2
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,022 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 187,950 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 7 of them.