Abstract :
We examined gender differences in healthy adults on the revised version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (henceforth the Eyes Test), developed by Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, and Plumb (2001). In this task, participants examine photographs of pairs of eyes and choose among four descriptors (e.g., playful, comforting, irritating, bored). Healthy adults and samples from ten countries (Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Argentina, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Chile, and Hungary) were included in the analysis. Consistent with previous evidence of a small female advantage in decoding nonverbal behavior, we found a small statistically significant effect for female superiority over males on the Eyes Test (g = .177, k = 42). Together, the test for heterogeneity and [I.sup.2] indicate that the female advantage on the Eyes Test is homogenous across studies, suggesting that the variability of effect sizes across studies is only due to what would be expected by random subject-level error. We examined the following moderator analyses: (a) language of Eyes Test administration; (b) country; (c) group of researchers; and (d) reported data versus articles in which we requested data from authors. The moderator analyses yielded no significant differences. The small effect in favor of females suggests that women tend to be better than men at judging emotions or mental states represented by eye stimuli.
Access from your library
This is a preview. Get the full text through your school or public library.