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Compassionate goals and affect in social situations

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Abstract

Optimal social interactions can leave people feeling socially connected and at ease, which has clear implications for health and psychological well-being. Yet, not all social interactions leave people feelings at ease and connected. What explains this variability? We draw from the egosystem–ecosystem theory of social motivation (Crocker and Canevello 2008) to suggest that compassionate goals to support others explain some of this variability. We explored the nature of this association across four studies and varying social contexts. Across studies, compassionate goals predicted greater feelings of ease and connection. Results also indicate that a cooperative mindset may be one mechanism underlying this association: Findings suggest a temporal sequence in which compassionate goals lead to cooperative mindsets, which then lead to feeling at ease and connected. Thus, these studies suggest that people’s compassionate goals lead to their sense of interpersonal ease and connection, which may ultimately have implications for their sense of belonging.

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Notes

  1. We did not control for trait levels of extraversion, emotional instability, or roommate relationship anxiety or avoidance in daily analyses because predictors were person-centered, which controlled for these variables at the trait level.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Greg Webster for his assistance with our analytic strategy.  We would also like to thank Katie Lewis, Timothy Cavnar, Andrew Crocker, Dominik Mischkowski, Mary Liu, George Payapilly, Cristina Popa, Megan Villwock, Claire Woodward, Avonne Ambrister, Diana Anthony, Kaitlyn Beaver, Jasmine Brunson, Jorge Caraballo, Alex Davies, Kara Fielding, Leo Garcia, Dillon Hooks, Briana Lanier, Megan McClelland, Shaena Mosteller, Devan Pender, Nate Shanok, and James Whitt for their invaluable assistance with data collection.

Funding

Study 3 was supported by Grant Number R01MH058869 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA

    Amy Canevello

  2. Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Jennifer Crocker

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  1. Amy Canevello
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Correspondence to Amy Canevello.

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Canevello, A., Crocker, J. Compassionate goals and affect in social situations. Motiv Emot 41, 158–179 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-016-9599-x

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