ABSTRACT : Introduction. Two types of physician empathy (PE) can be distinguished in cancer care: "emotional/empathic concern" (e.g. showing care and compassion, fully understanding your concerns) and "active/cognitive" empathy (e.g. explaining things clearly, helping you to take control) (Gehenne et al., 2020). Our aim was to explore which type of PE could reduce patient hopelessness and increase patient empowerment. Methods. 6 videos (ie, 6 scenarios) of a doctor-patient consultation were created and acted out by actors: 2 (bad news, ie, cancer surgery was a failure vs follow-up, ie, surgery went well) * 3 (no PE vs emotional vs cognitive empathy). After randomization, digestive cancer survivors viewed a scenario and rated their perception of PE (CARE), and how they would feel if they were the patient in the video (Brief- H-Neg for hopelessness and Patient Enablement Inventory for empowerment). Linear regressions were performed adjusting for participants' age, gender, emotional skills, negative affectivity, and general health (among other covariates). Results. 165 survivors participated in the study, 62% male, mean age: 62 years. PE was perceived higher in the follow-up videos than in the bad news videos. In linear regressions, perceived physician cognitive empathy, but not perceived physician emotional empathy, significantly explained feelings of hopelessness and empowerment. Conclusions. In surgical cancer care, active-cognitive empathy appears to be preferred by patients and associated with better patient outcomes than emotional empathy.