CMV: Women are the more empathetic sex

VladTheGlarus · 2025-03-02T03:06:24+00:00

I strongly disagree. In my personal experience most women's empathy extends to the line it starts affecting them and requires action or effort. Most men's empathy extends beyond that line.

Unfortunatelly modern society has defined empathy to toughts, prayers, facebook posts and other superficial performative "empathy" displays.

RahLyt · 2025-03-02T03:26:05+00:00

Who are women more empathetic to? Other women?

Pepes_parrillaXXX69 · 2025-03-02T11:54:44+00:00

If women are the most empathetic sex then good lord is humanity fucked.

growframe · 2025-03-02T02:20:10+00:00

You haven't provided any evidence or backing for this claim. Your entire post presupposes this as fact and then makes conclusions from that.

Werevulvi · 2025-03-02T02:48:32+00:00

I don't think women are more (or less) empathetic than men. I think men just generally express their emotions differently. Mainly more often through physical actions like screaming, being violent, withdrawing, seeking solitude, getting addicted (to alcohol, gambming, porn, etc) through being sexual, etc. While women more commonly use actions like talking, venting, ranting, crying, etc, to express their emotions.

Both can be either healthy or unhealthy. Like obviously being violent a lot or in bad ways, and isolating too much is unhealthy, but so is ruminating, overthinking and crying very often to a point it's uncontrollable. Yet punching things can be cathartic, being violent can be a good way to resolve really bad conflict or protect broken boundaries, and withdrawing can be a good way of reflecting, talking things out can be helpful in moving on, and crying can be cathartic as well. All in moderation, as with many other things in life.

So no, I think maybe a more likely reason for women to stay married longer might be that...unfortunately we women are just better at putting up with bullshit than men are, and men are generally better at setting healthy boundaries. (The good side of them being more violent.) Likely due to how the genders are raised differently. Ie men are more commonly taught to be strong and good leaders, or at least not weak and a doormat, which generally includes being more firm with one's boundaries, ie not putting up with bullshit. While women are more often taught to be gentle and agreeable, which is way harder to be while at the same time having firm boundaries.

Can you be both soft/gentle and firm? Yes, but it requires a lot more practice, and frankly, most women never learn that. Thus women being doormats is unfortunately a lot more common. I for sure have always struggled with learning how to set healthy boundaries without resorting to being violent or needlessly angry, and without it messing with my softer side, and to some extent I still do struggle with that.

Mick427 · 2025-03-02T08:33:30+00:00

Joy makes an important observation: "The reason women can stay married as long as they do is because they have a lot of girlfriends."

Joy = facts🤣🤣

Nidken · 2025-03-02T04:21:17+00:00

Yes women are more emotionally inclined but that doesn't make them necessarily better friends compared to men.

Women tend to express themselves emotionally, so emotional empathy is useful for female bonding. Men tend to prefer solutions to their problems, making action oriented bonding more useful.

Fantastic_Draft8417 · 2025-03-02T21:03:32+00:00

It really depends, people’s empathy changes depending on who they’re being empathic towards.

Women have the most empathy for small children, much more than men, too. The reason should be obvious, as the maternal instinct is very strong. This also extends to animals considered “cute”, which is also why animals like cats are so popular with women, because it allows them to experience their motherly instincts without being forced to pretend to like a man. Also, this usually only extends to domesticated animals. Most wildlife they couldn’t give less of a shit about unless they are educated like a researcher or biologist.

For other women, women also have empathy, but not as much as for small children/animals. The idea that men have that women are “catty” with each other is generally overplayed. Women usually bond pretty strongly with each other over shared experiences and troubles of womanhood (ie. periods, motherhood, harassment from men) and this in general leads to women bonding very strongly with each other.

For men, women have negative empathy. Women in general want absolutely nothing to do with men, the last thing they want to do is empathize with their problems. Women already only pretend to like men, so when a man comes to them with “problems” the disgust just becomes too overwhelming, and the woman actually has to create physical distance between the man just to retain her sanity, because the disgust she feels is just so extremely overwhelming that it could actually drive a person insane.

Ask any man how his relationship how it went after he started talking about his problems to “his” woman. To her, it’s revolting, disgusting, that he thinks he has problems like she does.

just_a_place · 2025-03-03T07:16:32+00:00

I am not the most altruistic asshole in the world but I do know one thing:

The gender that is truly the most empathetic would not label themselves as such in order to pin the title to their chests to scoff at the other gender.

Women are not empathetic, they believe they are such due to their solipsism.

Superannuated_punk · 2025-03-02T04:38:02+00:00

Nah.

Men do tend to get the empathy beaten out of them more; but the human spirit longs for connection.

FrodoCraggins · 2025-03-02T16:12:05+00:00

Women have stronger in-group tribal bias than men, and far more hostility to tribal out-groups. This is why they'll literally bully other women to suicide and not feel any remorse about it. If you're in the clique and conform, women will care about you. If you're an outsider in any way you're an enemy who deserves every bad thing that happens to you, and they'll actively make sure bad things happen to you.

Men as a group are far more empathetic to outsiders and try to treat everyone with a baseline level of respect.

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FearlessSea4270 · 2025-03-02T02:28:24+00:00

[permanently deleted]

ManufacturerFine2454 · 2025-03-02T17:55:42+00:00

I think they are, to their detriment. I know empathy is a buzzword nowadays, but I don't think empathetic necessarily means moral or better socially.

How do you think Bundy got his victims? He's a good lucky man who seemed to be down on his luck and needing help.

My mom used to say don't be so open minded your brain falls out. In my younger years, I was horrified as I believed, like we are socialized, that we should always be thinking of others and their 'lived experiences'. Now that I'm older, I realize she's right in that our empathetic nature is easily taken advantage of.

Maffioze · 2025-03-02T21:06:42+00:00

Women are more empathic, but your title does not align with what you're claiming in your post.

Women being more empathic is different than that meaning it's the explanation for them having more expansive support networks. You didn't really give any argument for why this would be a causal relationship.

RedPill115 · 2025-03-02T22:48:29+00:00

Statement: It's largely due to our capacity for empathy that others seem to lack

Actual clip: One of the women starts talking about things she likes in her husband. The show host - jealous that she's momentarily not the center of attention and someone is saying something positive about men - interrupts her to demean her husband as a "servant" and pressures her to agree.

"Capacity for empath" lmao

Men can stay married for a long time because their relatively needs are relatively simple and stable with someone who they found attractive to begin with.

Women's relationship needs are chaotic and ever changing, thus for them to keep their relationship stable they they require a group of other women so they can express this chaos without destroying the stability of their relationship.

Stock-Argument-1040 · 2025-03-03T02:18:53+00:00

I don't think it's quantifiable. Empathy is for the most part an internal process so how are we going to decide one is better at it than the other. If you're talking about being better at the expression of empathy then maybe, but I also think that statement places some ways of dealing with emotions above others.

Artistic_Speech_1965 · 2025-03-03T09:41:36+00:00

I agree and disagree.

Yes, women have an amazing social circle and a strong emotional support. I also agree nobody should make their spouse their everything

In general, men don't really need that much emotional intimacy as much women do. Also women don't need as much sex as men do. That's why some couple fail their marriage

Clean-Luck6428 · 2025-03-04T18:31:57+00:00

https://www.collagegroup.com/boomers-donate-to-religious-and-child-health-causes-men-lead-in-charitable-donations/

“The study finds that men lead the general population in charitable donations. Men are more receptive to solicitations from others, including those from friends, family, and influencers, as well as solicitations via the telephone and email marketers.”

I think you find lots of specific demographics where women donate more on the margins but most charity donation money is given by men

Schleudergang1400 · 2025-03-06T14:31:57+00:00

When a woman stays married due to girlfriends, a man stays married as well.

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Men and women are equally lonely. So being more empathetic, which is scientifically proven, does not lead to less loneliness.

What you completely neglect is: to what degree are women more empathetic? Is is 2%? You make it sound as if men are not empathetic at all while all women are super empathetic. It's not like that at all. A lot of men are more empathetic than a lot of women. And the difference in averages is tiny.

Being extremely high in empathy can have several downsides, particularly in terms of mental health, decision-making, and social interactions:

1. Increased Risk of Emotional Burnout and Compassion Fatigue

People with extremely high empathy can become overwhelmed by the emotions of others, leading to emotional exhaustion and compassion fatigue, especially in professions that involve caregiving (e.g., healthcare, social work).

2. Higher Levels of Anxiety and Depression

Highly empathic individuals are more likely to experience stress, anxiety, and depression, as they frequently absorb negative emotions from others. This can create a state of chronic emotional distress.

3. Difficulty Setting Boundaries

Extreme empathy can make it hard to say no, leading to people-pleasing behaviors and difficulty maintaining personal boundaries. This increases the risk of being exploited in personal and professional relationships.

4. Impaired Decision-Making

High empathy can interfere with rational decision-making, as individuals may focus too much on others’ emotions rather than objective outcomes. This is particularly problematic in leadership roles where tough, impartial decisions are needed.

5. Increased Personal Suffering from Others’ Pain

Empathic distress can lead to vicarious trauma, where a person experiences symptoms similar to PTSD due to excessive emotional involvement with others’ suffering.

6. Bias and Moral Blind Spots

Extreme empathy can lead to favoritism and bias, as people tend to empathize more with those who are similar to them or who are suffering visibly, potentially leading to unfair or irrational judgments.

FearlessSea4270 · 2025-03-02T02:23:34+00:00

I think girls are socialized to be more empathetic. But I don’t think women are biologically predisposed to more empathy, just that society doesn’t nurture sensitivity and emotional intelligence in boys/men.

It’s nurture, not nature.

Title	CMV: Women are the more empathetic sex
Author	Windmill_flowers
Upvotes	0
Comments	103
Date	March 2, 2025 2:09 AM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/1j1g47j/cmv_women_are_the_more_empathetic_sex/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/cmv-women-are-the-more-empathetic-sex.1545370 https://theredarchive.com/post/1545370

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