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Cottrell and Dymond point out how empathic responses—one's ability to assume the role of another—occupy a central position in the thinking of Harry Stack Sullivan and in his psychotherapy. The psychiatrist is a participant observer in the therapeutic situation. In view of the importance of empathic phenomena in interpersonal relations in all social interaction and group integration, it is susprising how little research has been directed toward empathy. The authors have started such work at Cornell University and here report their preliminary observations. The subjects were seventy male and sixty-three female students in social psychology courses. Empathy was measured by requiring the subject to assume the attitude of a series of others with whom he had been associated and to predict the way in which these others would rate him and rate themselves on a series of personal traits. These were then scored against the actual ratings made by each member of the group. In general, people who rated high in empathic ability had better interpersonal relations, had more self-insight, and in their histories had more satisfying early emotional experiences than those with low empathy scores.