Sex differences in social cognition among individuals with schizophrenia and in healthy control participants: a secondary analysis of published data

Sex differences are present among individuals experiencing schizophrenia. Whether these differences extend to social cognition is unclear. In this study, we investigated sex differences in emotion perception, social perception and theory of mind (ToM).

We examined sex differences between males and females with schizophrenia on five social cognitive tests. Healthy male and female control participants were included to examine if any sex difference was illness-specific. Emotion perception was measured with Pictures of Facial Affect (PFA) and Emotion in Biological Motion (EmoBio); social perception with the Relationships Across Domains Test (RAD); and ToM with the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) and Hinting Task.

Two-way analyses of variance revealed overall group differences for all tests, with healthy controls outperforming individuals with schizophrenia. Significant sex effects were present for PFA and Hinting Task. There were no significant interaction effects. Within-group independent samples t-tests yielded one significant sex difference, i.e., among healthy controls for PFA.

Females had better facial emotion perception than males. This sex difference was statistically significant among healthy controls and medium-large among individuals experiencing schizophrenia. There were no significant sex differences for other social cognitive domains. The study did not find evidence for a general female advantage in social cognition.