8 Wonderful Psychological Effects of Being Compassionate

8/13/2019 8 Wonderful Psychological Effects of Being Compassionate

1/5

8 Wonderful Psychological Effects ofBeing Compassionate

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without themhumanity cannot survive. ~Dalai Lama

What a wonderful world it would be if people could generate a little more

compassion for each other.

The power of compassion is stronger than empathy because it is about imagining

the suffering of others at a deeper level; consequently it is more likely to

motivate action.

And compassion isnt just beneficial for the person being helpednurturing

compassion has some remarkable psychological effects on the self.

Here are eight psychology studies which show the effects of exercising your

humanity.

1. Compassion can be learnedCompassion is not something you either have or you dont it can (and should) be

learned and nurtured.

Thats been demonstrated byWeng et al. (2013)who gave participants a one-

day course in loving kindness meditation.

This helps foster benevolent and loving feelings towards the self and others.

After the training, people felt better in themselves, were more compassionate

towards others and there was more activation in the areas of the brain

associated with love, affiliation and positive emotion.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612469537http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612469537http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612469537http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612469537


2/5

This was true even when they were shown videos of people in distress which

previously had caused negative emotions.

The lead author of the study, Helen Weng said:

Its kind of like weight training. Using this systematic approach, we found that

people can actually build up their compassion muscle and respond to others

suffering with care and a desire to help.

2. Compassion motivates actionIts all very well feeling more compassionate, but its not much use if you dont

do anything about it.

Compassion, though, can be a powerful motivating force.

In one study participants who had been meditating were given an undercover

test of their compassion (Condon et al., 2013).

They were sat in a staged waiting area with two actors when another actor

entered on crutches, pretending to be in great pain. The two actors sat next to

the participants both ignored the person who was in pain, sending the

unconscious signal not to intervene.

Those who had been meditating, though, were 50% more likely to help the

person in pain than a control group who had not been meditating.

One of the studys authors, David DeSteno, said:

The truly surprising aspect of this finding is that meditation made people willingto act virtuousto help another who was sufferingeven in the face of a norm

not to do so.

3. Happier and healthier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613485603http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613485603http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613485603http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613485603


3/5

Along with being beneficial to others, experiencing more compassion benefits

your own psychological and physical health.

A study byFredrickson et al. (2008)had participants direct their loving

compassion towards themselves over a week, then in the next week towards

their loved ones.

The researchers found that those participants who had been randomly assigned

to meditate compassionately showed increased levels of daily happiness

compared with a control group.

Not only this, but those meditating compassionately also experienced less

depression, had higher satisfaction with life and were in better physical shape.

4. Boost immune responseThe power of compassion also reaches into the bodys immune and stress

response systems.

Pace et al. (2009)found that participants whod been doing more compassionate

meditation had stronger immune responses to a stressor, as measured

physiologically by interleukin and cortisol levels.

5. Empathic neural responseNeuroscientists have found that increased loving compassion can be measured in

the living brain.

In a study byLutz et al. (2008),expert and novice meditators generated a

mental state of loving-kindness-compassion while their brains were scanned.At certain points while participants were in the brain scanner the experimenters

fed in sounds of distress.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156028/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156028/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156028/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695992/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695992/http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001897http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001897http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001897http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001897http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695992/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156028/


4/5

While the participants were concentrating on being compassionate, the brain

regions responsible for the processing of emotions were enhanced, compared

with when they were at rest.

In addition, the areas associated with empathy and understanding other peoples

minds were also more active.

6. Increased empathySince compassionate thought boosts activity in the empathic centers of the brain,

it also boosts empathic accuracy.

Mascaro et al., (2013)gave participants a test of empathy called the Mind in the

Eyes Test which involves guessing emotions from only a pair of eyes.

Th0se whod completed a short course on compassion did better on the test,

showing that their empathic accuracy was enhanced.

7. More helpfulIn a study byLeiberg et al. (2011),participants played a game called the ZurichProsocial Game (ZPG).

This tests whether they reciprocate, whether they respond when others are in

distress and assesses the costs of helping.

Beforehand some participants had been given short-term compassion training.

Their test results were compared with a control group who had received memory

training.

The compassion training group demonstrated more prosocial behaviourin other

words they were more helpful towards others.

8. Less afraid of suffering
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss095http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss095http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017798http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017798http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017798http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017798http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss095


5/5

The pain of others is distressing and its a natural reaction to avoid people in

pain.

But being more compassionate can change this, causing negative avoiding

emotions to be replaced with positive compassionate emotions.

Thats whatKlimecki et al. (2013)found when they gave participants compassion

training and then exposed them to a video about people in distress.

After the training people responded neurally with more love, affiliation and

positive emotions to suffering.

Practice compassion

All of these studies show that the following quote from the Dalai Lama couldnt

be more true:

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy,

practice compassion.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs142http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs142http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs142http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs142

8 Wonderful Psychological Effects of Being Compassionate

Documents

Transcript of 8 Wonderful Psychological Effects of Being Compassionate