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London, Dec 27 (Ians) Do you know why your spouse can read another person’s thoughts and feelings better than you (she can read your mind too)? Researchers now have an answer.

On average, women score higher than males on the widely-used ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ test, which measures ‘theory of mind’ (also known as ‘cognitive empathy’).

This finding was observed across all ages and most countries, as per a new study of over 300,000 people in 57 countries.

Importantly, there was no country where males on average scored significantly higher than females on the test, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Pnas).

“Our results provide some of the first evidence that the well-known phenomenon – that females are on average more empathic than males – is present in a wide range of countries across the globe. It’s only by using very large data...

BBC Two will follow a group of unemployed people as they search for a job in new series Employ Me.

The three-part show - similar to Channel 4's The Undateables but with a career twist - will follow people who can't get work because they have a neurological condition.

The group of participants, who have conditions such as autism, Tourette's syndrome, Adhd and Down's syndrome, have often been trying to find work for years but have been unable to convince employers to hire them.

The series will examine their journey as they live with their condition, change employers' perceptions and try to get a job.

The BBC revealed that people with "neurodiverse" conditions are less likely to be in work than those with physical disabilities, with just 15% of people with autism being employed.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, director of Cambridge University's Autism research centre, is working on the series and...

The psychopathic son in Lionel Shriver's novel and Lynne Ramsay's film isn't evil – but has zero empathy

In Lynne Ramsay's brilliant film of the book We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, we meet a child who will inevitably be described as is "pure evil". Almost from birth, Kevin shows his mother no love, just pure hate; he doesn't just push her away, but plays with her mind, finding ever new ways to hurt her. The film asks us to face up to two big questions: where does "pure evil" come from, and how should we as parents or as a society respond to it?

For me, the term "evil" is not helpful. Instead I suggest we need to talk about the erosion of empathy. Unlike evil, empathy is scientifically tractable. You can measure it, locate it in the brain, and dissect it into its component parts.

Does it upset you when you see people arguing? Do you cry at the cinema? Empathy is one of our most powerful emotions yet society has all but ignored it. Autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen reveals the science behind "the world's most valuable resource" – and how its lack is the root of human cruelty

● See how you fare in our empathy test

When I was seven years old, my father told me the Nazis had turned Jews into lampshades. Just one of those comments you hear once and the thought never goes away. To a child's mind – even to an adult's – these two types of thing just don't belong together. He also told me the Nazis turned Jews into bars of soap. It sounds so unbelievable, yet it is actually true. I knew our family was Jewish, so this image of turning people into objects felt a bit close to home.

April is Autism month, and just in time, Cinema Libre is bringing documentary Loving Lampposts: Living Autistic to DVD and video-on-demand on March 29.

Filmmed by Todd Drezner, the father of an autistic boy, the movie looks at two sides of the autism issue: the “recovery movement,” which views autism as a tragic epidemic brought on by environmental toxins and childhood vaccines, and the “neurodiversity movement,” which argues that autism should be accepted as a variation of the human brain.

In the 83-minute documentary, Drezner attends the National Autism Association conference and speaks with purveyors of alternative treatments. He interviews actress Jenny McCarthy, the mother of an autistic child and parents who believe they have cured their children with alternative treatments. Drezner also speaks to experts such as Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre; parents including Kristina Chew and Jim Fisher, both university professors; and high-functioning adults living with autism,...

Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.