Women Can Read Minds Better Than Men
Psychologists at the University of Bath, Cardiff and London have been researching how well people can understand what others are thinking. It turns out that women are better at knowing than men. “Mind Reading” is referred to in psychology as mentalizing, which is the ability to pick-up on subtle nonverbal ques that may indicate something someone is not saying.
Experts found that some people are inherently better at this than others. When someone struggles significantly with this ability it may lead to many issues in social situations. This study in particular looked at people with autism and their challenges in building and maintaining relationships based on social cues. The “mind-reading” test took data from 4,000 autistic and 4,000 non-autistic participants in the US and UK.
According to Medicalxpress.com, the goal of the experiment was to identity those who need help with this skill. The results came from what was only a four part questionnaire. They found that females reported themselves much higher on the mind-reading scale than men. They also were able to confirm through the results the social challenges faced by people with autism. Their hope is that with this short test they are able to gauge someone’s ability to mentalize and identify how they can be helped.
Dr. Punit Shah, who was the senior author of the study stated, “much of how we communicate relies on our understanding of what others are thinking, yet this is a surprisingly complex process that not everyone can do.” Their hope from the study is that we can better understand those who live with these difficulties, especially in the autistic community and help them to have more positive experiences in social situations.
