Can Empathy Explain Gender Differences in Economic Policy Views in the United States?
Linda Kamas and Anne Preston
Abstract
This paper shows that well-documented gender differences in interventionist government economic policy views are explained by different levels of expressed empathy of men and women. Using the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure empathy, we find that more empathic people support more interventionist policies. While greater empathy leads both men and women to support more government action, there is no gender difference in effects of empathy on policy views. When policy views are separated by area, gender differences on policies concerning poverty, inequality, and social welfare disappear once empathy is accounted for, however, they persist in views on free markets.
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