The oral contraceptives (OC) impair the ability to recognize others’ emotional expressions especially during their “pill-free” days, which may have serious consequences in interpersonal contexts.
Two studies investigated the influence of oral contraceptives use on three components of empathy: emotion recognition, perspective-taking, and affective responsiveness.
Scientists tested whether women who were using oral contraceptives would be less accurate in the recognition of complex emotional expressions than women who were not using oral contraceptives.
In addition, they explored whether these differences in emotion recognition would depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase.
The first study compared naturally cycling women to two groups of OC users, one being tested in their pill-free week and one in the phase of active intake.
Whereas groups did not differ in emotion recognition and perspective-taking, an effect of pill phase was evident for affective responsiveness: females currently taking the pill showed better performance than those in their pill-free week.
These processing advantages complement previous findings on menstrual cycle effects and thereby suggest an association with changes in endogenous and exogenous reproductive hormones.
In the second study researchers tested whether women who were using OCs would be less accurate in the recognition of complex emotional expressions than women who were not using OCs.
In addition, they explored whether these differences in emotion recognition would depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase.
Resarchers found that women with OC use were indeed less accurate in the recognition of complex expressions than women without OC use, in particular during the processing of expressions that were difficult to recognize.
These differences in emotion recognition did not depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase.
These findings, thus, suggest that OCs impair women’s emotion recognition, which should be taken into account when informing women about the side-effects of OC use.
See also
Hormonal contraception linked with depression (2016-10-23)
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For more information
Oral Contraceptives Impair Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Women
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Affective responsiveness is influenced by intake of oral contraceptives
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MDN
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