Empathy and Foetal Testosterone
Simon Baron-Cohen
University of Cambridge, Autism Research Centre
Empathy is defined as the drive to identify another person’s mental state (‘cognitive empathy’) and to respond to this with an appropriate emotion (‘affective empathy’). The cognitive component equates to what is also called a ‘theory of mind’. I describe the experimental evidence for typical developmental of empathy and its atypical development in children and adults with autism spectrum conditions. I briefly touch on new methods for teaching emotion recognition to improve empathy. Sex differences in empathy are also discussed, with evidence pointing at empathy being on average stronger in females than males in the general population. To explore the biological basis of this sex difference we have conducted a longitudinal study of children whose mothers had amniocentesis, where we could measure foetal testosterone (FT) in the amniotic fluid, and follow up such children in childhood. Results suggest FT is inversely correlated with social development and empathy. Evolutionary explanations for the sex difference in empathy are considered.
Key References
Baron-Cohen, S (2003) The Essential Difference: men, women, and the extreme male brain. Penguin/Basic Books
Baron-Cohen, S, Lutchmaya, S, & Knickmeyer, R, (2004) Prenatal Testosterone in Mind. MIT Press.
Baron-Cohen, S (2008) Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts. Oxford University Press.
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