Study maps empathy-perception differences in 528 heterosexual Slovak couples

Men and women were equally sensitive to their partners’ self-reported empathy in a study of 528 heterosexual couples, but the analysis identified two asymmetries in how they perceived it: men showed greater perceptual projection and a larger tendency to underestimate women’s empathy. Across the relationship measures examined, most estimated gender differences were small, with effect sizes ranging from d = 0.05 to 0.26. The findings suggest that a single self–partner discrepancy can make romantic relationships appear more strongly divided by gender than the underlying analyses indicate.

The research used data from 545 Slovak couples, representing 1,090 people, while the main dyadic analyses focused on 528 heterosexual couples, or 1,056 participants. Participants supplied self-reports and partner reports for relationship satisfaction, attraction, attachment behaviors, and person-centered relational qualities, including empathy. Because both members of a couple contributed information about the same relationship, the researchers used generalized estimating equations with an exchangeable working correlation and robust sandwich standard errors clustered by couple.

Substantial within-couple agreement supported that approach: correlations ranged from r = .55 to .71, and intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.53 to 0.70. The researchers applied the Truth and Bias model to decompose empathy perception into perceptual sensitivity, directional bias, and perceptual projection. Men and women had the same estimated sensitivity to their partner’s self-reported empathy, with both coefficients at β = 0.43 and p < .001.

Projection differed, however: its coefficient was 0.77 for men and 0.60 for women, a difference reported at p = .030. The observed gender pattern therefore was not accompanied by evidence that one partner group read the other’s reported empathy more accurately. Instead, the asymmetry emerged in a different component of the model.

Directional bias showed a smaller but statistically detectable pattern. Men underestimated women’s empathy by 1.38 points, equivalent to 1.9% of the scale range, and this estimate differed from zero at p = .008. Women overestimated men’s empathy by 0.23 points, or 0.3% of the range, but that estimate was not distinguishable from zero at p = .592.

The study also found a gender-by-satisfaction interaction specific to empathy. In the lowest relationship-satisfaction tertile, men’s calculated self–partner discrepancy scores averaged +8.33, compared with +1.12 for women. Among the most satisfied couples, the corresponding means were −1.96 for men and −4.15 for women, so the difference reversed in direction and the gap closed.

Taken together, the results qualify the idea of a broad empathy-perception divide between men and women. Both groups appeared equally sensitive to their partner’s self-reported empathy, while men’s larger projection estimate and underestimation of women’s empathy accounted for more of the observed asymmetry. The satisfaction interaction also showed that self–partner discrepancies varied with the relationship context rather than forming a uniform pattern across the sample.

The study does not establish that empathy misperception caused lower satisfaction, and its results should not be generalized beyond the studied population without further evidence. The sample was drawn from Slovak couples, the focal comparison involved heterosexual dyads, and the measures relied on self- and partner-report forms. Within those limits, the decomposition distinguishes the components behind an apparent gender gap rather than treating discrepancy scores as direct evidence of one group’s greater sensitivity or a universal relationship failure.

Subject of Research: Empathy-perception sensitivity, directional bias, and projection in heterosexual romantic relationships

Article Title: The empathy perception paradox: how women’s generous partner perceptions create apparent gender gaps in romantic relationships

Article References: Halamová, J. (2026). The empathy perception paradox: how women’s generous partner perceptions create apparent gender gaps in romantic relationships. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05549-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05549-4

Keywords: empathy perception, romantic relationships, gender differences, partner perceptions, perceptual projection, directional bias, relationship satisfaction, dyadic analysis, Slovak couples, Truth and Bias model, empathy, perception