Custom Flair: "SCIENCE"

A user in another OP linked this study: "Defining the causes and consequences of sex differences in juvenile rat social play"

In the study, they stopped rats from playing with the others when they were kids. The male rats they did this to were later unable to mate compare to the female rats who were play-deprived.

Social play is a dynamic behavior known to be sexually differentiated; in most species, males play more than females, a sex difference driven by the medial amygdala (MeA).

We assessed the effect of juvenile play deprivation, predicting that play-deprived rats would exhibit impairments that would differ by sex.

Supporting our hypothesis, males prevented from playing as juveniles showed multiple impairments in adult socio-sexual behavior, including decreased sexual and empathy-like behavior, hypersociability, and increased aggression.

Females, however, were largely resilient, showing little to no impairments on these or other tests.

• There does to be something at hand in that when males aren't guided and intentionally socialized in their early development, they tend to behave in an anti-social manner that isn't as prevalent for females who aren't guided and intentionally socialized in their early development.
• This subsequent anti-social behavior affects males' ability to attract sexual mates (or friends).
• It's interesting they used the word "resilient" because it's a word I hear many psychologists, therapists, and educators use when describing girls and women's ability to grit through emotional trauma in a manner that still "plays in the sandbox well with others," at least relative to their male peers.
• I also found it interesting that the study says males play more than females. Might explain a lot of the "men come across more 'immature' than women" discourse?

Why do we think that is? Nature? Nurture?

There's another study exploring empathy: "Stability and Differences in Empathy Between Men and Women Medical Students: a Panel Design Study"

This study directly compares empathy levels between male and female medical students, providing evidence that women tend to have higher empathy scores than men in this context. The findings suggest that gender differences in empathy may exist within the medical profession, which could have implications for patient care and the doctor-patient relationship.

Results:

• Female medical students scored significantly higher on the JSPE-S than their male counterparts.
• The empathy scores of both male and female students declined during the third year of medical school, which is the first year of clinical rotations.
• Female students maintained higher empathy scores than male students across all years of medical education.

The study concluded that female medical students have higher levels of empathy compared to male medical students throughout their medical education.

Why do we think that is? Nature? Nurture?