Compassion: An Evolutionary Analysis and Empirical Review

By Jennifer L Goetz, Dacher Keltner, Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas. Psychological bulletin, 2010

2,002 citations recorded by the source corpus.

What is compassion? And how did it evolve? In this review, we integrate three evolutionary arguments that converge on the hypothesis that compassion evolved as a distinct affective experience whose primary function is to facilitate cooperation and protection of the weak and those who suffer. Our empirical review reveals compassion to have distinct appraisal processes attuned to undeserved suffering, distinct signaling behavior related to caregiving patterns of touch, posture, and vocalization, and a phenomenological experience and physiological response that orients the individual to social approach. This response profile of compassion differs from those of distress, sadness, and love, suggesting that compassion is indeed a distinct emotion. We conclude by considering how compassion shapes moral judgment and action, how it varies across different cultures, and how it may engage specific patterns of neural activation, as well as emerging directions of research.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1e60c0084879864283917cecd18d9496b8c21c2b

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Citations in the corpus

Compassion revealed: What we know about compassion at work (and where we need to know more) (2011, background): “Beyond the impact of compassion on suffering individuals, research reveals patterns of compassion spirals, in which those on the receiving end of compassion are subsequently better able or more likely to direct caring and supportive behaviors toward others (Goetz et al., 2010).”
Self-compassion, Interpersonal Conflict Resolutions, and Well-being (2013, background): “Traditionally, compassion has been understood in terms of concern for the suffering of others (Goetz, Keltner, & Simon-Thomas, 2010 ).”
The Forgiving Organization: A Multilevel Model of Forgiveness at Work (2012, background): “Psychological theory suggests that interdependence directly facilitates compassion (Goetz et al., 2010), paralleling Dutton et al.’s (2006) notion of a “sense of family” as an enabler of compassionate action.”
Compassion for one reduces punishment for another (2011, background): “Although the capacity for compassion likely evolved within the context of caregiving relationships (Goetz et al., 2010), its generalizability to other targets, once evoked, may represent a spandrel with benefits aimed at countervailing the negatives associated with increasing punishment.”
Self-Transcendent Emotions and Their Social Functions: Compassion, Gratitude, and Awe Bind Us to Others Through Prosociality (2017, background): “Compassion is part of a family of states such as pity, sympathy, and empathic concern, which vary according to secondary appraisals (Goetz et al., 2010).”
Compassion as a Practical and Evolved Ethic for Conservation (2015, background): “The evolutionary underpinnings for the ethical behavior of compassion lie in the evolutionary processes that reward empathic adaptations (Goetz et al. 2010), but compassion can be practically defined as reflecting empathy in humans for nonhuman animals and a drive to alleviate harm and suffering.”
The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Conflict Resolution (2019, background): “Other researchers use the term sympathy (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990; Wispé, 1986) or compassion (Goetz et al., 2010; Keltner & Goetz, 2007) to denote feelings of concern for the suffering of another person.”
Venturing for Others with Heart and Head: How Compassion Encourages Social Entrepreneurship (2012, background): “Compassion results in a more prosocial cost-benefit analysis where others' outcomes are valued more highly (Goetz et al., 2010; Nussbaum, 1996, 2001), thereby increasing the perceived benefits of acting to alleviate others' suffering.”
Empathy: a motivated account. (2014, background): “Another relevant construct when considering other-oriented empathic motives is compassion (cf. Goetz et al., 2010).”
A randomized controlled trial of compassion cultivation training: Effects on mindfulness, affect, and emotion regulation (2013, neutral): “Although definitions of compassion vary (e.g., Goetz et al. 2010; Halifax 2012; Jinpa 2010), there is broad agreement that compassion is comprised of a combination of affective, cognitive, and motivational components.”
Self-Compassion: Theory, Method, Research, and Intervention. (2022, background): “More recently, Gilbert and colleagues (2017) have developed a model of compassion for self, for others, and from others, 7.6 Neff based on the broadly used definition of compassion as sensitivity to suffering with a commitment to try to alleviate it (Goetz et al. 2010).”
Modeling Empathy and Distress in Reaction to News Stories (2018, background): “It is other-focused, retains self-other separation, and is marked by relatively more positive affect (Batson and Shaw, 1991; Goetz et al., 2010; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2010; Sober and Wilson, 1997).”