title: Class and compassion: socioeconomic factors predict responses to suffering.
abstract: Previous research indicates that lower-class individuals experience elevated negative emotions as compared with their upper-class counterparts. We examine how the environments of lower-class individuals can also promote greater compassionate responding-that is, concern for the suffering or well-being of others. In the present research, we investigate class-based differences in dispositional compassion and its activation in situations wherein others are suffering. Across studies, relative to their upper-class counterparts, lower-class individuals reported elevated dispositional compassion (Study 1), as well as greater self-reported compassion during a compassion-inducing video (Study 2) and for another person during a social interaction (Study 3). Lower-class individuals also exhibited heart rate deceleration-a physiological response associated with orienting to the social environment and engaging with others-during the compassion-inducing video (Study 2). We discuss a potential mechanism of class-based influences on compassion, whereby lower-class individuals' are more attuned to others' distress, relative to their upper-class counterparts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. jstellar@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Stellar
authors.forename: Vida M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Manzo
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kraus
authors.forename: Dacher
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Keltner
mesh_terms: D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D014741:Video Recording