Gender differences in empathic accuracy: Differential ability or differential motivation?

Following their qualitative review of the findings from 10 relevant studies , Graham and Ickes (1997) speculated that reliable gender-of-perceiver diff erences in empathic accuracy (a) were limited to studies in which the empat hic inference form made empathic accuracy salient as the dimension of inter est, and (b) therefore reflected the differential motivation, rather than t he differential ability, of female versus male perceivers. These speculatio ns were tested more rigorously in the present study, which examined a large r set of 15 empathic accuracy studies and applied the techniques of quantit ative meta-analysis to test Graham and Ickes' (1997) moderating variable hy pothesis. The hypothesis was strongly supported, consistent with a motivati onal interpretation previously proposed by Berman (1980) and by Eisenberg a nd Lennon (1983), which argues that reliable gender differences in empathy- related measures are found only in situations in which (a) subjects are awa re that they are being evaluated on an empathy-relevant dimension, and/or ( b) empathy-relevant gender-role expectations or obligations are made salien t.