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The Expression of Compassionate Love in the South African Cultural Diversity Context

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International Handbook of Love

Abstract

Compassionate love is a form of altruistic, caring love that emphasises concern for the other’s wellbeing (Kim, Wang, & Hill, Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing, 2(1), 23–44, 2018; Miller, Kahle, Lopez, & Hastings, Developing Psychology, 51(1), 36–43, 2015). Recently, there has been an increase in prejudice toward some culturally diverse outgroups. In response, the South African government and citizens have called for compassion. In four studies, Sinclair, Fehr, Wang, and Regehr (Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 176–183, 2016) found that people who are high in compassionate love tend to express less prejudice than those who are low. Furthermore, they found that people high in compassionate love had more positive attitudes toward culturally diverse outgroups, including foreigners. Building personal relationships with culturally diverse outgroup members is an important catalyst for positive cultural intergroup attitudes. The objective of the chapter was to present a critical review of the way in which compassionate love holds promise as a positive pathway to prejudice reduction. A compassionate love scale can be used, in alternative forms, to assess compassionate or altruistic love for different targets (e.g. culturally diverse outgroups and all of humankind). Compassionate love was found to be associated positively with prosocial behaviour, as directed both to close others and to all of humanity. Evidence was found that compassionate love is distinct from empathy (Collins et al., Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 1–29, 2014; Sprecher & Fehr, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22(5), 629–651, 2005).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Rudolf M. Oosthuizen

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  1. Rudolf M. Oosthuizen
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Correspondence to Rudolf M. Oosthuizen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

  2. Institut für therapeutische Kommunikation und Sprachgebrauch, Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

  3. Global Institute for Transcultural Research, Römerberg, Germany

    Elisabeth Vanderheiden

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Oosthuizen, R.M. (2021). The Expression of Compassionate Love in the South African Cultural Diversity Context. In: Mayer, CH., Vanderheiden, E. (eds) International Handbook of Love. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45996-3_31

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