Social Psychology Day of Compassion Essay

In this instance, I realized that I was not acting sincerely, and I consider faking compassion far worse than acting without it in such a circumstance. While the fact that I already possessed empathy and responsibility aided in my acting compassionately, at certain times throughout the day, I didn't feel like my true self.

In my mind, there are no costs to behaving compassionately, as I saw nothing but benefits from my Day of Compassion. Some researchers have found that acting with compassion and altruism not only reduces stress, but can have positive health effects on an individual such as the suppression of disease activity and the activation of immune responses (Sternberg, 4). In understanding this, it's clear to see that we as human beings are wired to act compassionately, and can only benefit from doing so. Further, the individuals with whom I interacted seemed to notice my compassion in our interactions, especially in situations that would not normally garner such actions, such as simple, quick conversations throughout the day with individuals who I would normally not deeply interact with, such as cashiers, individuals around me in line at the movies, waiters, etc.

In understanding the benefits both societally and personally that people experience from social psychology experiments like the "Day of Compassion," social psychology and compassion respectively have the capacity to change society if the effects of such experiments are brought to life on a more public scale.In predicting my own behavior months from now in relation to my participation in this day, I know I have been changed in several ways, and if I have, others have to. In fostering a society focused on compassion for one another, nothing but good can come of it, and social experiments such as the Day of Compassion have the ability to continuously do great things for society and for its participants.

Works Cited

Sternberg, Esther. "Approaches to Defining Mechanisms by which Altruistic Love

Affects Health," Web. Retrieved from: http://www.unlimitedloveinstitute.org/publications/pdf/whitepapers/Mechanisms_Altruistic [Accessed on 15 November 2011].

Young-Mason, Jeanine. "Understanding Suffering and Compassion," in Cross Currents,

51(3): pp. 347-359. Fall 2011. Web. Retrieved from: ProQuest Database.

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