Inhibitory control and empathy-related personality traits: Sex-linked associations

We here report two studies exploring associations between inhibitory control (measured with the Sustained Attention to Response Task, SART) on the one hand, and self-reports of trait cooperativeness and empathy on the other. A coherent picture was obtained in women whose inhibitory control proficiency predicted higher scores on the Temperament and Character Inventory Cooperativeness and a higher Empathy Quotient. Individual differences in working memory did not predict self-reported empathy. In men, the association between SART performance and empathy was less clear: Good performance on the inhibitory task predicted lower scores on Cooperativeness and was unrelated to the Empathy Quotient. In both studies, women outperformed men on the SART. The results in women may reflect how individual differences in elemental neuro-cognitive operations such as inhibitory control influence more complex functions such as social cognition.

► We explored links between self-reports of empathy/cooperativeness and inhibitory control.
► Women doing well on the inhibitory task had high scores of empathy/cooperativeness.
► In men good inhibitory control predicted low cooperativeness only.
► Working memory was not associated with empathy/cooperativeness in neither sex.
► Women outperformed men in the inhibitory task.