With genetics out of the equation, it’s not clear why men have less empathy than women do, Warrier said.

“We know that there are strong social factors that shape how empathetic we are or how we perceive ourselves to be empathetic,” Warrier said, adding that traditionally, society has higher expectations of female children to be understanding of others’ feelings. However, non-genetic biological factors could also play a role.

“Biologically, there are differences between men and women — things like hormones and hormone levels,” he said. “It could be possible that some of these hormones that are present in greater levels in women can drive some of the higher empathetic scores.”