Compassion, pride, and social intuitions of self-other similarity.

TLDR

Compassion motivates care‑taking while pride signals rank within social hierarchies, and the study discusses how these findings advance understanding of these emotions. The study used trait measures and experimental inductions of compassion and pride to assess perceived self‑other similarity to strong or weak groups and unfamiliar individuals. Compassion increased perceived similarity to weak or vulnerable others, whereas pride increased similarity to strong others and decreased it toward weak others, effects that were independent of mood or ingroup status.

Abstract

Compassion and pride serve contrasting social functions: Compassion motivates care-taking behavior, whereas pride enables the signaling and negotiation of rank within social hierarchies. Across 3 studies, compassion was associated with increased perceived self-other similarity, particularly to weak or vulnerable others. In contrast, pride was associated with an enhanced sense of similarity to strong others, and a decreased sense of similarity to weak others. These findings were obtained using trait measures (Study 1) and experimental inductions (Studies 2 and 3) of compassion and pride, examining the sense of similarity to strong or weak groups (Studies 1 and 2) and unfamiliar individuals (Study 3). The influences of compassion and pride on perceived self-other similarity could not be accounted for by positive mood, nor was this effect constrained by the ingroup status of the target group or individual. Discussion focuses on the contributions these findings make to an understanding of compassion and pride.