The XX Factor

Empathy: It’s Contagious

Here’s a really interesting study showing that proximity to women appears to shape male views on policy. I recently wrote about a study showing the influence of female judges on their male counterparts in gender discrimination cases. Courtesy of FiveThirtyEight, here’s a bunch of fascinating studies showing that fathers of daughters tend to support more liberal programs , ranging from reproductive rights to affirmative action to working families’ flexibility and tax-free education. It’s not all that surprising that men who invest a lot of time and energy in raising daughters will come to support programs that help women succeed. But I’ll score this one as yet more evidence for the manly virtues of “empathy.”