Are men therapists soft on empathy? Two studies in feminine understanding.

A serendipitous finding and a replication among successive populations of clinical-counseling practicum students suggest that the typical female therapist communicates more empathically than her male colleague. In the first study, reactions of 8 women trainees were evaluated as more empathic than those of 10 men counterparts. Despite control for sex-typed handwriting cues in the second study, 8 male novitiates' responses were assessed as less empathic than those of 8 females. The results are consistent with the notion of differential sex-role prescriptions for interpersonal sensitivity.