Empathy is a complex part of a person’s mind and allows
people foster emotionally charged relationships with others. A lack of empathy
is usually associated with behavioral issues, making finding out the variables
that control a person’s empathy levels important. Around 46,000 23AndMe
customers took part in an experiment to see if empathy levels were influenced
by genetics, run by a group of scientists from the University of Cambridge and
Institut Pasteur. The genetic information of the participants was then compared
to their empathy quotient or EQ scored (a 50-question long test to help rate one’s
empathy level) to see how much of the difference in the EQ score could be
attributed to a participant’s genetics. According to the article around 10 percent
could be attributed to genetic factors. However, the sample of people used was
not representative of the world’s diversity.
The experiment sounded fascinating due to its
hard-to-quantify subject even though it was sparsely detailed in the news
article on how the calculation went from EQ score to the difference in empathy
level. The news article did bring up doubt about the experiment (issues with
the sample size and diversity) which is refreshing to see.
Other article- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-017-0082-6
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