Exercising Empathy: Overhearing Dialogue Increases Cognitive Empathy Relative to Participating in the Conversation.

Is effort the key increasing empathy? In a two phase study, pairs of strangers completed a referential communication paradigm, recordings of which were presented online to overhearers. Following these tasks, overhearers showed significantly higher levels of cognitive empathy on performance and self-report measures than interlocutors, demonstrating that eavesdropping exercises empathy.