The roles of empathy, anger, and gender in predicting attitudes toward punitive, reparative, and preventative public policies

Gender differences in policy attitudes and political affiliation (popularly known as "the gender gap") are of increasing concern to lawmakers and politicians, yet the underlying bases of these differences are not clear. Such differences may relate to attitudes toward several different political routes to social change: (1) punitive social policies, (2) the provision of reparative human services, and (3) preventative interventions. Gender differences in attitudes toward different types of policies may be mediated by the experience of empathy toward people affected by social problems, and by anger toward perpetrators of social ills. Four studies tested for gender differences in support for punitive policies, reparative human services, and preventative social policies, and explored potential emotional and attitudinal mediators of differences that were found. In Study 1, subjects' relative preferences for punitive, reparative human-service, and preventative political actions were measured. Women preferred human service actions more than did men, and men preferred punitive and preventative actions more than did women. Study 2 found that men support punitive political policies more than do women. Study 3 explored the roles of emotional, attitudinal and personality factors in predicting relative action preferences and volunteer interest. Again, men supported punitive actions more than did women, and women supported human-service actions more than did men. Among men, state anger predicted support for punitive actions, and among females, state empathy predicted willingness to volunteer. Study 4 explored all the predictor variables measured in Study 3, but also examined the potential mediating influences of trait emotions, gender role, moral orientation, and focus of attention. Among both men and women, state anger predicted support for punitive actions, and trait empathy predicted support for human service actions. Trait empathy mediated the gender difference found in support for human-service actions. Results provide evidence that emotional dispositions and reactions play an important role in shaping political attitudes, and more specifically, that gender differences in emotion influence gender differences in policy preferences. The significance for theories of gender-specific moral styles is discussed.