Compassionate Actions for Friends, Strangers, and Ourselves: We Give Differently (2020)

When people recognize others in a state of suffering, they may choose to act compassionately. Individuals willingly offer compassion to themselves and others, but the types of compassionate actions vary along with the receivers’ relatedness to the giver. We used Chapman’s Five Love Languages (1992) to categorize the types of actions individuals offer to others: friends, self, and strangers. Students at SUNY Potsdam were surveyed. We found that participants were most likely to offer Quality Time to themselves and friends and Words of Affirmations to strangers. Participants were least likely to offer Physical Touch to strangers. The closeness of a relationship seems to be related directly to the shared physical space, or the degree of closeness, required by the action. The results of this study indicate that individuals are indeed willing to act compassionately, yet what they choose to give depends on their degree of relatedness.

• Student(s): The Students of Prof. Dolese’s Empirical Art and Aesthetics Lab
• Project Mentor(s): Melissa Dolese
• OSRC — L&RF 2020 Video Compassionate
• OSRC — L&RF 2020 Poster Compassion