Revealed, genes have a role in empathy

News24xx.com -  Now scientists say empathy is not just something that we develop in the process of our upbringing and life experience - it is also partially 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 showed that women tend to be more sensitive than men. Empathy has an important role in our relationships. It helps us to recognize the emotions of other people, and this encourages us to respond appropriately, for example, knowing when someone is upset and wants to be comforted.

In many respects, it is largely considered to be something we develop through childhood and our life experiences.

But in this new article, published in the journal "Translational Psychiatry," scientists were looking for an opportunity to discover the possibility of acquiring a sense of empathy at the gene level.

Scientists then looked for differences in their genes that could explain why some of us are more sensitive than others. They found that at least 10% of the differences in how much we can be sensitive relate to the issue of genetics.

Varun Warriere of Cambridge University, 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 people reduces to genetics, it is equally important to understand and not genetic factors. "

The study also found differences in empathy between the sexes.

Of the maximum 80 questions on the evaluation of emotions, women on average scored 50, compared with 41 in men. But the researchers said they could not find any genetic differences other than this. Scientists also found that genetic differences associated with a lower level of empathy are also associated, in turn, with a higher risk of autism.

However, they acknowledged there were limitations to the research