Experience-sampling survey

After the baseline survey, participants underwent seven short surveys per day, sent between 10am and 10 pm for one week, delivered by Metricwire (MetricWire®, 2013). Surveys were sent semi randomly, within a 90-min window, with a minimum 15 min gap between surveys. Surveys expired 20 min after the prompt. The daily survey consisted of four levels that were built on each other (see Fig. 1). On the first level, participants were questioned about their current subjective well-being, and if they had an opportunity to empathize (empathy opportunity), to be the target of empathy, or to act prosocially in the last 15 min. If an empathy opportunity had occured in the last 15 min, further details relating to this opportunity were acquired. On the second level, participants were asked if they experienced actual feelings of empathy for the person or people involved. If they responded “yes”, they were subsequently asked to indicate whether they experienced any (or several) of emapthy's subcategories: emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion. Subsequently, extent, difficulty, and confidence were probed for every subcategory they indicated. The length of the survey was always the same, irrespective of the answer provided. In the original study, a multitude of questions were asked, which are not relevant for the current research question. For further details see Depow and colleagues⁶³.