Origin of empathy gap? Evolution has wired us toward reproduction, having grand children. Historically 60% of men didn't reproduce (20% of women). For the selfish gene they were useless. Could that be a reason why we tend to feel disgust when we see a man in a gutter but worry if it's a woman?

rawrditor · 2020-07-22T11:50:01+00:00

The origin of the empathy gap is that females are more important for reproduction than males.

If a catastrophy wiped out 90% of the women of a tribe, recovery was very slow. It was basically the end of that tribe.

If a catastrophy wiped out 90% of the men of a tribe - recovery was faster and they had a better chance to survive in the long run.

Of course, patterns like this existed long before humans did.

Svenskbtch · 2020-07-23T08:48:31+00:00

Of course. The empathy gap, gender roles, the historical norm of polygamy - all have the same origin.

Throughout most of human history, the only way the tribe could survive at all, in a world plagued by ubiquitous violence, disease, risks of childbirth, and child mortality of over 30%, was by focusing on protecting and providing for mothers and children. In a life span barely exceeding 40, every woman had to bear and rear over 4 children on average.

This led to polygamy, allowing the strongest (or most high-status or successful) men to provide for more than one woman, whereas the weaker were left without access to reproduction. From an evolutionary standpoint, there was no reason to have empathy for the men that did not reproduce - nor of course the women who did not (think witch trials).

Pretty much all the issues related to gender roles, such as the debates here, stem from this deep-seated biological and cultural programming. While this should not make us defeatist, it is perhaps important for all sides of the debate to keep in mind that it takes more than a few generations of wealth in the West to compensate for thousands of years of evolution...

dontpet · 2020-07-22T22:50:02+00:00

It is part nature, part nurture. The wonderful thing about humans is we can push past nature and create highly cultured settings.

Those settings can be a heaven or a hell but I think we have been moving much toward heaven. We can do a better job by men and we are pretty of the dialog needed to create that reality.

delicatediscourse2 · 2020-07-27T02:16:59+00:00

Have a citation for that statistic?

RockmanXX · 2020-07-22T22:18:22+00:00

I don't really think empathy is dependent on Evolution, especially when you consider how Women are treated in traditionalist cultures. Women are not given this Princess treatment, we give them in Western Culture.

Women are highly valued for their reproductive ability but how the Society treats them is very dependent on the culture. If it's a non-western/non-liberal culture the chances are that they won't get any more empathy than Men do because they don't believe in the Feminist narrative. So in my eyes, this is a cultural issue.

Could that be a reason why we tend to feel disgust when we see a man in a gutter but worry if it's a woman?

Because it's NORMALISED in our culture. We worry if it's a woman because it's rare. Media brainwashes us to hate&mock the poor.

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