Correlates of Compassion for Suffering Social Groups

ABSTRACT

This study investigates whether multiple factors correlate positively or inversely with compassion felt toward suffering social groups. Data were collected from 367 participants during April 2020 to investigate hypotheses in the context of three suffering social groups in the United States during that time: the Black American community, the LGBTQ community, and those directly affected by COVID-19. Results showed that compassion toward suffering groups covaries inversely with one’s own ingroup preference. Compassion toward suffering social groups also covaried positively with the extent to which a person identifies with a suffering social group or knows people in a suffering social group. Additionally, loneliness was inversely correlated with compassion for suffering groups. These results suggest that although compassion is an important emotional motivator for engagement in prosocial behaviors that are vital to maintaining relationships, multiple factors can enhance or inhibit it.

KEYWORDS:

• Compassion
• group identity
• ingroup preference
• loneliness
• suffering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Cronbach’s alpha is the most widely reported measure of internal reliability in several academic disciplines; however, researchers have recently begun encouraging the use of its parent measure, McDonald’s omega (ω). Proper use of Cronbach’s alpha assumes essential tau-equivalence – that “each item measures the same latent variable, on the same scale, but with possibly different degrees of precision” (Graham, 2006, p. 934). McDonald’s omega does not need to meet this assumption, but of note, McDonald’s omega reduces to Cronbach’s alpha when the essential tau-equivalence assumption is met (Hayes & Coutts, 2020). Thus, McDonald’s omega should be used in place of Cronbach’s alpha as it depends on fewer statistical assumptions being met.