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Genetics Affects "Empathy Quotient"

posted by mrpg on Tuesday March 13 2018, @12:45AM   
from the I-like-you dept.

takyon writes:

Genes have a role in empathy, study says

It helps us to make close connections with people, and influences how we behave in a range of situations, from the workplace to a party. Now scientists say empathy is not just something we develop through our upbringing and life experiences - it is also partly inherited.

A study of 46,000 people found evidence for the first time that genes have a role in how empathetic we are. And it also found that women are generally more empathetic than men.

[...] Participants in the study had their "empathy quotient" (EQ) measured with a questionnaire, and gave saliva samples for DNA testing. Scientists then looked for differences in their genes that could explain why some of us are more empathetic than others. They found that at least 10% of the differences in how empathetic people are is down to genetics.

Varun Warrier, from the University of Cambridge who led the study, said: "This is an important step towards understanding the role that genetics plays in empathy. But since only a tenth of the variation in the degree of empathy between individuals is down to genetics, it is equally important to understand the non-genetic factors."

The genomic data came from 46,861 23andMe users.

Genome-wide analyses of self-reported empathy: correlations with autism, schizophrenia, and anorexia nervosa (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41398-017-0082-6) (DX)

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Original Submission

• Re:Gender bias (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:44AM

  by c0lo (156) on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:44AM (#651737) Journal

  Women are also more neurotic than men, which in the past was how we ended up with "more emotional histeric"

  FTFY.
  Before modding me down, note that the comment places the context "in the past" then read this [huffingtonpost.com]:

  Hysteria was the first mental disorder attributed to women (and only women) -- a catch-all for symptoms including, but by no means limited to: nervousness, hallucinations, emotional outbursts and various urges of the sexual variety (more on that below).
  ...
  1. Hysteria was caused by wandering wombs.
  ...According to a comprehensive history of female hysteria compiled by researchers from the University of Cagliari in Italy, Egyptian texts dating as far back as 1900 BC argued that hysterical disorders were caused by women's wombs moving throughout their bodies. The ancient Greeks believed it, too. In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates (i.e., the founder of western medicine, in what may not go down as his greatest achievement) first coined the term "hysteria" -- from "hystera," or uterus -- and also attributed its cause to abnormal movements of the womb in a woman's body.

  2.And experts believed the condition was incredibly common.
  ...
  3. Sex thoughts were a symptom.
  Fainting, outbursts, nervousness and irritability weren't the only hallmarks of female hysteria; certain core aspects of female sexuality, desire and sexual frustration were also on the list. As Mother Jones reports, "excessive vaginal lubrication" and "erotic fantasy" were also both considered symptoms of the disease. The horror!

  4. It could be cured by pelvic massage ...
  ...
  5. ... or vibrators ...
  When the vibrator emerged in the late 19th century, explains technology historian Rachel Maines [technology historian] in her book "The Technology of Orgasm" explains, it was intended as an "electromechanical medical instrument" to provide more reliable and efficient physical therapy to women believed to be suffering from hysteria
  ...
  6. ... or a good hosing.
  ...
  7. And the established medical community held onto these beliefs for a very long time.
  It's easy to laugh-off female hysteria as preposterous and antiquated pseudo-science, but the fact is, the American Psychiatric Association didn't drop the term until the early 1950s. And though it had taken on a very different meaning from its early roots, "hysterical neurosis" didn't disappear from the DSM -- often referred to as the bible of modern psychiatry -- until 1980.

  See, magister? And you want us to still trust the Greeks today? (grin)

  --
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  Parent

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