Absolutely, and in my linked post I mentioned an article that says writers score unusually high on empathy. It's not clear which caused which, but I suspect it goes both ways--empathetic people turn to writing, and writing helps develop empathy. I wish the study had also shown how writers scored on the different dimensions of empathy, like say cognitive (knowing how people feel) and emotional (feeling along with them). My hunch is that cognitive empathy is almost a must for effective writing, but that emotional empathy might vary which is why writers aren't necessarily nice people. In fact, high cognitive empathy without emotional empathy, or at least some sort of compassionate response, might be downright dangerous.