Women have been saying it for years and even men would have to agree that, when it comes down to the emotional side of life, the ladies are the more perceptive of the genders.And now science has confirmed that the female of the species is indeed better at picking up on emotions.
Researchers at the University of Montreal used actors to simulate facial expressions in front of 23 men and 23 women, who were then asked to identify each emotion.
The girls outstripped the boys when it came to processing the facial expression and making an assessment as to the emotion expressed.
Olivier Collignon, who led the research, said that the study offered a better understanding of "mental diseases which have a strong gender component.
"That means they affect men and women differently. Autism is a good example, because it affects more men than women and one of its features is the difficulty in recognising emotions."
Both autism and Asperger's syndrome sufferers manifest difficulty empathising.
Mr Collignon added: "Seeing as our results show that men identify and express emotions less efficiently than women, it supports this theory to a certain extent."
The research, published on the journal Neuropsychologia's website, found that women were particularly good at distinguishing between fear and disgust.
Presumably that comes from years of asking their man to join them on a shopping trip.
shopping spree
