the perspective of another and inhibit certain impulses in the service of the other. Nancy Eisenberg
and Daniel Batson have pioneered research suggesting that high emotional contagion or personal
distress in witnessing the distress of others can overwhelm the system and inhibit other-oriented
motivation [see also
for the biology underlying empathic distress versus compassion].
Increasing evidence from the field of social neuroscience appears to support such links in terms of
overlapping neural circuits that are implicated in emotion regulation, cognitive control and the
capacity to cultivate compassion and other forms of prosocial responding
. More specifically,
studies from both social psychology and social neuroscience suggest that excessive or
dysregulated emotional responding can prevent a person from pulling back from this emotion to
separate self from other, assess the situation at hand accurately and allocate attentional resources
towards the other
,
. This becomes particularly relevant when conceptualizing the
compassion drive as involving an accurate awareness of another’s suffering and an intentional
focus towards relieving such suffering.
At the same time, too little emotion may also impede the compassion drive. Research has shown a
consistent link between affective empathy (being sensitive to and emotionally sharing or resonating
with the emotions of others) and the two core components of compassion: awareness of the
emotions of others and an other-oriented desire to reduce another’s suffering
,
,
. This
link is also supported by biological evidence demonstrating an association between empathy-
related brain responses in the anterior insula and prosocial behavior
Affective empathy, or
moderate levels of “emotional sharing” in which self is still distinguished from other, is generally
considered facilitative in understanding another’s emotions and motivating an other-oriented
compassionate drive. Associations between blunted affect and decreases in empathy and
prosocial behavior have been observed across a number of psychopathologies, including
depression
schizophrenia
and psychopathy
Another example of “too little” emotion is
the phenomenon known as “compassion fatigue”, a term used to describe the emotional burnout
that can potentially result from caring for others in emotional pain. This term, also sometimes
described as vicarious traumatization, refers to a reaction characterized by emotional numbness
and detachment from others
. As argued elsewhere (see
, “compassion fatigue”
might rather be renamed “empathic distress fatigue”. In other words, this numbness or lack of
emotional reactivity, typically following a spike of emotional reactivity, appears to create an
emotional environment in which the drive to reach out and reduce another’s suffering is dampened.
Consistent with the Buddhist concept of the Middle Way or path of moderation, multiple lines of
research converge to suggest the role of emotional balance in facilitating the compassion drive.
The Role of Emotion Regulation and Concluding Thoughts
In sum, what does this work tell us about processes that may be central to promoting compassion?
First, research increasingly supports the notion that fight or flight emotions (e.g., anger and fear)
and self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame, embarrassment and pride) can reduce the drive to be
compassionate. Further, there is evidence to suggest that both too much and too little emotion can
dampen this drive. This suggests that reducing self-focused emotions and promoting emotional
balance may be critical for cultivating compassion. In other words, emotion regulation appears to
be a key component in the cultivation of compassion. A number of specific strategies may be
central to realizing this goal. First, when an individual has greater access to their emotional
experience there is a greater likelihood that they will recognize that certain reactions are
detrimental to themselves or others. This awareness will thereby motivate changes in behavior and
environmental antecedents to these reactions. Thus, a first step would involve techniques and
processes that promote greater self-awareness. Mindfulness processes could be central to fulfilling
these goals as they are focused on increasing attention to and awareness of mental experience.
333
