People avoid compassion for strangers as it feels mentally taxing: Study
In a series of studies, the researchers found that when given the option, people often chose to avoid feeling compassion for others and reported that doing so was mentally effortful, which were linked to their choices. The researchers also found that if the situation involved a person they were close to, such as a family member, people were more likely to choose to feel compassion.
Julian Scheffer, a Penn State graduate and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, USA, said the findings suggest a need for new ways to encourage people to open themselves up to feeling compassion for others — especially in times of division and hardship.
“Experiencing compassion often leads to wanting to help others and improve their welfare. But we found that people may be unwilling to experience compassion and find it mentally taxing,” Scheffer said, adding, “Knowing when effort matters for compassion can help inform how we think about weaker compassionate responses, whether in response to a stranger or even mass suffering, as in the case of the pandemic.”
Daryl Cameron, assistant professor of psychology and research associate in Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute, said the studies were among the first to examine how and when people choose to feel compassion. “These choices track with felt cognitive costs. So, cultivating compassion for your family may feel easier than cultivating compassion for a stranger, and this may be one reason why people tend to show such biases in their compassionate responding,” Cameron said.
Scheffer added that one solution could be preparing people to take on compassion’s mental demands, which might help people be more willing. “As people are overwhelmed with the amount of suffering due to the pandemic, it may make compassion particularly difficult,” Scheffer said, adding, “Finding ways to better manage the mental challenges of compassion may provide a more rewarding route to generating pro-social motivation, especially in this particularly troubling time.”