Sex differences in social cognition: Insights from a sample enriched for social dysfunction

Research suggests there are sex differences in social cognitive abilities, with females typically performing better on tasks involving emotion recognition and mental state attribution. However, many prior studies have demonstrated limited replicability, perhaps due to differences in methods employed or samples studied. Given that social cognition is a key determinant of social functioning, and that social dysfunction represents a transdiagnostic issue in neuropsychiatric populations, understanding sex differences in social cognition among individuals with varying levels of social functioning should broaden our understanding of the etiology, expression, and treatment of psychopathology. The present study examined sex differences in gaze perception, perceptual theory of mind, and social inference abilities in a sample (n = 212; 58.5% female) of adolescents and young adults (ages 14-30) ranging from minimal to clinical levels of social dysfunction. Females performed better on tasks involving perceptual theory of mind, social inferencing, and eye gaze perception, and most sex differences remained even after accounting for general cognition, age, and psychopathology. The one exception is that females and males did not differ on a complex, dynamic social inferencing task once accounting for psychopathology. Our findings suggest that females may generally be more sensitive to social signals related to the eyes and may more accurately identify social signals when there is subtle or limited information available. Findings indicate the importance of recognizing sex differences in the presentation of social functioning and, by extension, socially relevant psychopathology. Such differences may have implications for tailoring treatments for social dysfunction.