Abstract
Compassion has been suggested to be a strong motivator for prosocial behavior. While research has demonstrated that compassion training has positive effects on mood and health, we do not know whether it also leads to increases in prosocial behavior. We addressed this question in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we introduce a new prosocial game, the Zurich Prosocial Game (ZPG), which allows for repeated, ecologically valid assessment of prosocial behavior and is sensitive to the influence of reciprocity, helping cost, and distress cues on helping behavior. Experiment 2 shows that helping behavior in the ZPG increased in participants who had received short-term compassion training, but not in participants who had received short-term memory training. Interindividual differences in practice duration were specifically related to changes in the amount of helping under no-reciprocity conditions. Our results provide first evidence for the positive impact of short-term compassion training on prosocial behavior towards strangers in a training-unrelated task.
Highlights
Prosocial behavior is a pervasive aspect of human life: We cooperate with others and help them when they are in need
Experiment 1 To investigate the effects of reciprocity, cost, and distress on the occurrence of prosocial behavior, we computed a 2 x 2 x 2 within-subjects repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA)
The present study introduces a newly developed prosocial game – the Zurich Prosocial Game (ZPG) – and provides first evidence for the effectiveness of short-term compassion training in enhancing prosocial behavior in this new training-unrelated game towards strangers
Summary
Prosocial behavior is a pervasive aspect of human life: We cooperate with others and help them when they are in need. While the experimental induction of empathic concern through explicit perspective-taking instructions or listening to songs with prosocial lyrics [11] might temporarily prime people to experience empathy when seeing the distress of others, training of compassion aims at permanently changing people’s motivation and their feelings towards other people. It strives to develop a more friendly, benevolent, connected and positive attitude towards others. Compassion training-induced changes at the trait level – but not at the state level - might even take effect on the opiate- and oxytocin-based affiliative system [7,13]
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