Women believe they have stronger ability to read minds, study shows 

More women believe they can read minds than men, according to a study.

Nearly 3,000 people in the UK and US answered four questions on how they rate their ability to understand what others are really thinking. 

Women consistently returned better scores than men – an average 12.6 out of 16 against 12.1.

Rachel Clutterbuck of Bath University said: ‘This work has great potential to better understand the lived experience of people with mind-reading difficulties, such as those with autism.’

The findings, as well as the test, have been published in the journal Psychological Assessment.

Dr Punit Shah, from the University of Bath’s Department of Psychology, said: ‘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.

‘To understand this psychological process, we needed to separate mind-reading from empathy.

‘Mind-reading refers to understanding what other people are thinking, whereas empathy is all about understanding what others are feeling.

‘The difference might seem subtle but is critically important and involves very different brain networks.

‘By focusing carefully on measuring mind-reading, without confusing it with empathy, we are confident that we have just measured mind-reading.

‘When doing this, we consistently find that females reported greater mind-reading abilities than their male counterparts.’

Mind-reading, sometimes referred to in psychology as mentalising, is the ability to pick-up on subtle behavioural cues that may indicate someone is thinking something they are not saying.

The researchers say people all have different mind-reading abilities, with some inherently better than others.

This can cause challenges, in particular for people with autism where it can lead to social struggles in building or maintaining relationships.