This is one of those scientific studies where I go "Duh", but apparently the scientists at Queens College (in Canada) were astounded:

Surprisingly, people with mild depression are actually more tuned into the feelings of others than those who aren’t depressed, a team of Queen’s psychologists has discovered.

“This was quite unexpected because we tend to think that the opposite is true,” says lead researcher Kate Harkness. “For example, people with depression are more likely to have problems in a number of social areas.”

The researchers were so taken aback by the findings, they decided to replicate the study with another group of participants. The second study produced the same results: People with mild symptoms of depression pay more attention to details of their social environment than those who are not depressed.

Why is this so surprising?  I suspect that obese people are more cognizant of the thin people around them than, say, the thin people themselves.