Sex differences in emotional empathy, the tendency to have vicarious emotional arousal , were examined in the context of sex differences in emotional development. According to Brody's (1985) proposition, with development males tend to inhibit expression of all emotions. whereas females tend to inhibit expression only of socially undesirable emotions. The present study hypothesized emotional empathy was derivable for females, but not for males, because it was part of the feminine role. Consequently, with development, males might increasingly inhibit emotional empathy, while females might not, so that interaction effects between sex and age on emotional empathy were expected. These hypotheses were tested with a Chinese sample (in Taiwan) of senior high school adolescents and college students. It was found that emotional empathy were indeed part of femininity roles. In addition, the expected interaction effects were also supported with indexes of emotional empathy. However, these interactions seemed due to females' increasing display rather than males' inhibition of emotional empathy. Some possible components of the variable, age, were discussed.
| Keywords: | Age; Sex Differences; Empathy |
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