Compassion
You feel compassion when you can prevent further harm to an unfortunate person.
The negative mental effect of compassion starts, for example, when you:
While compassionate behavior is a positive, the emotion of compassion is a negative.
Compassionate people are kind to people in trouble. We consider their compassionate behavior to a strong positive contribution to our communities.
The emotion that motivates most compassionate behavior is also called compassion. It is a negative emotion that coerces you to act immediately to prevent further harm.
While most compassionate behavior is coerced by the negative emotion of compassion, some is motivated by pride. Emergencies and similar situations that require an impulsive reaction are primarily motivated by compassion. A hero saves a child because he want to stop feeling compassion. Donations and similar charitable acts that are planned are primarily motivated by pride. A donor donates money because he wants to be honored and feel pride.
Compassion requires the ability to prevent harm.
You don't feel compassion if you cannot do anything to help an unfortunate person. You feel compassion if you see somebody fall to the ground in front of you. You don't feel compassion if you see somebody fall to the ground on America’s Funniest Home Videos. You cannot prevent harm to the videotaped person. Instead, you feel humor.
Compassion requires the person be unfortunate.
You don't feel compassion if you can help somebody, but the person is not unfortunate. You feel compassion when you see a double-amputee begging for change. You don't feel compassion when you see an able-bodied man begging for change.
The more harm you can prevent, the stronger the compassion you feel.
The negative mental effect is stronger the more lives or years of life you can save. You would feel strong compassion if you saw an elderly man in a burning house. You would feel even stronger compassion if you saw a young child in a burning house. Saving the young child would prevent the loss of more years of life.
You stop feeling compassion when you prevent further harm to the unfortunate person.
The negative mental effect of compassion stops, for example, when you:
Compassion stops when you have prevented further harm to the unfortunate person.
Simply put, compassion stops when an unfortunate person is safe. If you rescue an unconscious child from a burning house, your compassion will continue if you lay the child on the ground and walk away. Your compassion will not stop until emergency workers are caring for the child.
After compassion stops, the negative mental effect stops. You don't feel good - you just stop feeling bad. Heroes do not feel a positive effect after rescuing somebody. They just stop feeling the negative effect of compassion, unless they start talking to the media. Then they start feeling pride.
Actively minimizing compassion will make you happier.
Compassion is a negative emotion. The more you feel it, the less happy you will be. And it causes behavior that distracts from feeling positive emotions. Compassion will drive you to spend time and money helping the unfortunate, which is good for society and bad for you. Instead, you could use the time and money to be with friends or go on vacations, which will make you feel positive emotions. The less you feel compassion, the happier you will be.
The first step is to avoid feeling compassion.
The easiest way to avoid feeling compassion is to avoid compassion situations. Don't expose yourself to situations where you are likely to see unfortunate people that you could help. Don't, for example, go for walks on streets that you know have panhandlers. Turn the channel away from television stories of animal cruelty.
Assuming you cannot avoid compassion situations, you might be able to avoid compassion conclusions. The compassion conclusion requires misfortune and your ability to prevent harm. If you can re-interpret a situation to not be misfortune, you will not feel compassion. Or if you can re-interpret a situation as one where you do not have the ability to help, you will not feel compassion.
If you see a man in a burning house, you would normally feel compassion. However, if you know that the man is an arsonist, you will not feel compassion. Or is you learn that you cannot physically reach the man because of the flames, you will not feel compassion.
The second step is to resist helping.
If you cannot avoid feeling compassion, then you resist helping the unfortunate person. The best way to resist helping is to develop the habit of not helping when you feel compassion. Instead, you can count others to help. Everyone feels the same compassion that you feel.
If you resist helping, you will feel selfish guilt. However, you will not be injured or dead.
The negative mental effect of compassion starts, for example, when you:
- see a man without limbs on the sidewalk begging for money
- see somebody calling for help from a burning house
- see somebody knocked over by a falling tree
- see somebody abusing a weaker person
- see a dog running loose through traffic
While compassionate behavior is a positive, the emotion of compassion is a negative.
Compassionate people are kind to people in trouble. We consider their compassionate behavior to a strong positive contribution to our communities.
The emotion that motivates most compassionate behavior is also called compassion. It is a negative emotion that coerces you to act immediately to prevent further harm.
While most compassionate behavior is coerced by the negative emotion of compassion, some is motivated by pride. Emergencies and similar situations that require an impulsive reaction are primarily motivated by compassion. A hero saves a child because he want to stop feeling compassion. Donations and similar charitable acts that are planned are primarily motivated by pride. A donor donates money because he wants to be honored and feel pride.
Compassion requires the ability to prevent harm.
You don't feel compassion if you cannot do anything to help an unfortunate person. You feel compassion if you see somebody fall to the ground in front of you. You don't feel compassion if you see somebody fall to the ground on America’s Funniest Home Videos. You cannot prevent harm to the videotaped person. Instead, you feel humor.
Compassion requires the person be unfortunate.
You don't feel compassion if you can help somebody, but the person is not unfortunate. You feel compassion when you see a double-amputee begging for change. You don't feel compassion when you see an able-bodied man begging for change.
The more harm you can prevent, the stronger the compassion you feel.
The negative mental effect is stronger the more lives or years of life you can save. You would feel strong compassion if you saw an elderly man in a burning house. You would feel even stronger compassion if you saw a young child in a burning house. Saving the young child would prevent the loss of more years of life.
You stop feeling compassion when you prevent further harm to the unfortunate person.
The negative mental effect of compassion stops, for example, when you:
- give money to a man without limbs on the sidewalk begging for money
- rescue somebody calling for help from a burning house
- call an ambulance for somebody knocked over by a falling tree
- stop somebody abusing a weaker person
- rescue a dog running loose through traffic
Compassion stops when you have prevented further harm to the unfortunate person.
Simply put, compassion stops when an unfortunate person is safe. If you rescue an unconscious child from a burning house, your compassion will continue if you lay the child on the ground and walk away. Your compassion will not stop until emergency workers are caring for the child.
After compassion stops, the negative mental effect stops. You don't feel good - you just stop feeling bad. Heroes do not feel a positive effect after rescuing somebody. They just stop feeling the negative effect of compassion, unless they start talking to the media. Then they start feeling pride.
Actively minimizing compassion will make you happier.
Compassion is a negative emotion. The more you feel it, the less happy you will be. And it causes behavior that distracts from feeling positive emotions. Compassion will drive you to spend time and money helping the unfortunate, which is good for society and bad for you. Instead, you could use the time and money to be with friends or go on vacations, which will make you feel positive emotions. The less you feel compassion, the happier you will be.
The first step is to avoid feeling compassion.
The easiest way to avoid feeling compassion is to avoid compassion situations. Don't expose yourself to situations where you are likely to see unfortunate people that you could help. Don't, for example, go for walks on streets that you know have panhandlers. Turn the channel away from television stories of animal cruelty.
Assuming you cannot avoid compassion situations, you might be able to avoid compassion conclusions. The compassion conclusion requires misfortune and your ability to prevent harm. If you can re-interpret a situation to not be misfortune, you will not feel compassion. Or if you can re-interpret a situation as one where you do not have the ability to help, you will not feel compassion.
If you see a man in a burning house, you would normally feel compassion. However, if you know that the man is an arsonist, you will not feel compassion. Or is you learn that you cannot physically reach the man because of the flames, you will not feel compassion.
The second step is to resist helping.
If you cannot avoid feeling compassion, then you resist helping the unfortunate person. The best way to resist helping is to develop the habit of not helping when you feel compassion. Instead, you can count others to help. Everyone feels the same compassion that you feel.
If you resist helping, you will feel selfish guilt. However, you will not be injured or dead.
For more about emotions, visit: Happiness Dissected