Assessing perceived empathy based on genetic counselor gender using a randomized, hypothetical prenatal genetic counseling scenario design

Males in the genetic counseling field report facing negative perceptions related to their empathic ability. While these experiences have been explored qualitatively from the genetic counselor (GC) perspective, there currently is no research on the counselee or observer perspective of GC empathy as a function of GC gender. Our study aimed to determine whether individuals from the lay population perceive written empathic responses in a genetic counseling text scenario to be less empathetic from a genetic counselor who is written to be a man compared with a woman GC. Using a randomized two-arm trial with parallel groups, 139 participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, and 138 were presented with a hypothetical scripted prenatal genetic counseling scenario in written form involving a couple being counseled by either a male GC or female GC. Participants rated GC empathy based on a modified Consultation and Relational Empathy measure. Demographic characteristics and an item asking for the identification of GC gender were collected. Regression analyses were performed to identify whether GC gender and other demographic variables predicted empathy ratings. The primary analysis (N = 138) did not demonstrate a significant difference in empathy ratings based on GC gender. Exploratory analyses of a subsample who accurately recalled GC gender (N = 75) and a subsample re-grouped based on participants' report of GC gender (N = 126) show that the scenario with a scripted male GC received lower average empathy rating than the scenario with a female GC (p's < 0.05). Furthermore, we demonstrate that participants who reported having prior genetic counseling experience in a non-prenatal setting rate empathy as lower than those with prenatal experience. Overall, exploratory results suggest empathy is perceived by the lay population as different between a male and female GC, even when the content and dialogue of a written counseling scenario are identical. Further research is warranted to investigate GC gender and empathy.