Empathy, gender, and training as factors in the identification of normal infant cry-signals.

The effects of empathy, gender, and training on the ability to identify 4 infant cry-signals (birth, hunger, pain, and pleasure) were studied in 89 college students (ages 18 to 30 yr.), all of whom were low in experience as caregivers to infants. Subjects with training scored significantly higher than those without in identifying all but the pleasure cry-signal. Subjects low in empathy scored significantly better than subjects high in empathy in recognizing the birth cry-signal. Gender made no difference. Brief training may make the crucial difference in the development of this ability. Implications for parenting and infant care are discussed.