You are more likely to be compassionate toward strangers and enjoy helping them if you are female, have suffered a recent loss or are plucky, according to a study by researchers at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine.
“We want to foster compassion because helping others improves your quality of life, physically and emotionally, too, and can help you be less isolated and lonely,” said Lisa Eyler, Ph.D., co-author of the study and professor of psychiatry at the university. “But first we want to identify who is more likely and less likely to be compassionate.”
The study defines “plucky” as high mental resiliency, or one’s ability to recover from tragedies such as a major illness, job loss or death of a spouse.
The study was conducted by mail with 1,006 adults in San Diego County, ages 50 to 99.
Within the study’s older age group, age does not affect compassion, said Eyler.
“This surprised us because you think some older people would feel beat down or burned out,” she said. “But they told us that even with repeated tragedy, they’re still willing to help others.”
Life expectancy has a greater effect than age, said Eyler.
“People who have lost their spouses and now expect to live decades without them or people who are starting new lives in retirement communities, for example, are having to deal with greater life changes themselves, so they can say, ‘I’ve walked in your shoes,'” she said.
Unmarried people report higher levels of compassion than people who are married or in “married-like” relationships, the study showed.
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Income level does not affect results, said Eyler, “but it’s not a good indicator at this age because the person who had a high-income throughout his career may have extensive assets but a small retirement income,” she said.
Race is not a factor, either, said Eyler, but most of the participants were Caucasian.
The more adverse their losses, the more likely people are to say they are compassionate, said Eyler.
“They either want to pay it forward or they say they wish someone had been there for them when they needed it,” she said. “They say physical limitations, like being in a wheelchair or losing their hearing, do not hold them back.”
Compassion is broader than empathy, said the study. While empathy is the ability to understand another person’s suffering, compassion also includes the desire to lessen the other person’s suffering.
In a follow-up study, Eyler is interviewing the study participants more extensively.
“We’re hearing that compassion is not all selfless,” added Eyler. “Doing something nice for other people makes you feel better. And, many older people say their volunteer activity is their social life, that it gets them out of the house.”
On the other hand, participants are telling Eyler about barriers that prevent them from volunteering.
“Some don’t feel appreciated, don’t know how to help, worry that they don’t have the right skill sets, are too shy, are afraid of being viewed as a busybody or fear that ‘if you give a little, you have to give a lot,'” she said. “Some say they’ve been caregiving their whole lives and it’s someone else’s turn.”
Participants with large families consider themselves less judgmental about mistakes people make, said Eyler.
“They realize that anyone can screw up their lives. If it happens in their family, they say, it can happen in other families too,” she said.
The study was published in the April online edition of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.