Who Cares? Religiosity’s Role in Compassionate Responses to Human Suffering

Compassion – defined as care and concern for others' suffering – is a core value in all world religions. Yet, extending compassion is often challenging, requiring individuals to overcome significant personal and situational barriers. Could religious practices help navigate these barriers, fostering greater compassion? Across five studies (total N = 2,210) sampling from diverse faiths (Christians, Muslims, Buddhists), we investigate whether, when, and why engaging in religious practices promotes compassionate responses. These responses were measured as the selection of compassion-inducing situations and the upregulation of state compassion when witnessing suffering in various contexts (e.g., daily life, difficult events, victims of war). Religious practices, both public (worship attendance) and private (prayer), were consistently associated with greater compassionate responses (small to moderate association), even in the face of situational challenges, whether measured (e.g. target neediness, Study 1) or manipulated (i.e., compassion collapse for many victims, Study 2). Using experience sampling, we find that within-person fluctuations in religious practice are associated with momentary increases in compassion (Study 3). We further demonstrate that participating in religious practices increased compassionate choices, as shown in a natural experiment during Easter (Study 4). Finally, we identify two mechanisms – valuing compassion and feeling closer to those who suffer (Study 5) – that explain these associations. By bridging religion, emotion, and prosociality literatures, this work highlights how engaging in religious practices motivates compassionate responses to suffering, advancing theory on motivated compassion and its situational regulation.