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"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." Oxytocin, which is found in higher levels in women, can make people more empathic, while testosterone, present in higher concentrations in men, could do the opposite, Warrier said. He also noted that the current study only looked at the contribution of SNPs, but there are other types of genetic variations that could also play a role, and more research is needed. Previous studies on identical twins, for example, suggest that genes account for about 30 percent of a person's overall empathy. Need Assignment Help?