Study reveals lasting impact of compassion training on moral expansiveness

A recent study published in the journal Mindfulness has shown that training in compassion can significantly expand individuals’ moral circles. Researchers found that participants who underwent Compassion Focused Therapy demonstrated increased moral concern for a wider array of beings, including family, strangers, animals, and the environment. This effect was not only immediate but also grew stronger over a three-month follow-up period.

The concept of a moral circle refers to the range of beings and entities that an individual considers worthy of moral concern. Typically, people prioritize their family and close social groups, often neglecting those who are different, distant, or stigmatized. This tendency is rooted in evolutionary and psychological mechanisms that favor in-group ties. However, researchers have long been interested in what factors might lead individuals to expand their moral circles to include a more diverse array of beings.

Compassion, defined as a sensitivity to suffering coupled with a commitment to alleviate it, has been posited as a key driver of moral expansiveness. Unlike empathy, which can be biased and selective, compassion is thought to encourage a more universal and inclusive form of moral concern. Previous research has shown that compassion can reduce fears and biases, making it a promising candidate for interventions aimed at broadening moral circles.

“Being a researcher that studies compassion, I am always interested in whether compassion trainings, like meditation and imagery exercises do indeed help expand our concern towards others,” said study author James Kirby, an associate professor at The University of Queensland and author of Choose Compassion.

“In meditations you often shift the focus of your attention to different targets, such as people you care about, strangers, and people you dislike. But I was unsure to what extent compassion practices did lead to meaningful changes in how we feel about others. We know it improves the relationship with close others, like children or our partner, but can it lead to greater concern for people we dislike, people different and distant to us? That I wasn’t so sure about.”

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“So when I read about the development of the Moral Expansiveness Scale, which includes a range of different entities including animals, and asks people to place these entities in relation to how much moral concern they have for them, I thought this would be a great measure to use to test whether compassion training does indeed increase our moral concern about others.”

The researchers recruited 102 participants, all of whom were parents. The participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group attended a two-hour Compassion Focused Therapy seminar, while the control group was placed on a waitlist.

The seminar included a mix of psychoeducation about compassion, group discussions, and experiential practices designed to cultivate a compassionate mindset. Specifically, participants were introduced to core concepts of Compassion Focused Therapy such as “tricky brain” and “not your fault,” which explain the evolutionary and psychological underpinnings of compassion.

They engaged in seven exercises: adopting a compassionate body posture, using a friendly voice tone and facial expression, practicing soothing rhythm breathing, mindfulness exercises, cultivating a compassionate-self visualization, expressing compassion for others, and showing compassion for oneself. Each participant received a workbook and guided audio tracks to continue practicing these exercises over the next two weeks. (The meditation practices are available here: https://soundcloud.com/jamesn-kirby/sets/compassionate-mind-training-1.)

To measure the impact of the intervention, the researchers used the Moral Expansiveness Scale (MES) and the Compassionate Engagement and Action Scales (CEAS). The MES assessed participants’ moral concern for a variety of entities, ranging from family members to plants and the environment. The CEAS measured levels of self-compassion, compassion towards others, and the perception of receiving compassion from others. Data were collected at three points: before the intervention, two weeks after the intervention, and three months later.

Two weeks post-intervention, participants in the Compassion Focused Therapy group showed a significant increase in their overall moral expansiveness compared to the control group. This was particularly evident in their increased moral concern for family members and revered individuals.

For instance, the MES scores for the family sub-group increased from an average of 9.54 at the pre-intervention stage to 11.65 at the two-week follow-up. This increase suggests that the compassion practices helped participants extend their moral concern to those closest to them more robustly.

At the three-month follow-up, the findings became even more pronounced. The Compassion Focused Therapy group showed significant increases in moral concern across all entity sub-groups measured by the MES. This included not only family and revered individuals but also out-groups, stigmatized members of society, animals, plants, and the environment.

For example, the average MES score for environmental concern rose from 5.69 at the pre-intervention stage to 7.54 at the three-month follow-up. This suggests that the effects of the compassion training were not only sustained over time but also grew stronger, indicating a lasting impact on participants’ moral expansiveness.

The study also found that the perceived helpfulness of the compassionate-self exercise was a significant predictor of long-term moral expansiveness. Participants who found this exercise helpful were more likely to show increased moral concern at the three-month follow-up. This suggests that the effectiveness of compassion training might depend on how well participants can engage with and embody the compassionate-self practice.

“Naturally, who we care about is limited – and that means who we usually spend the most of our time being concerned about the people close to us – family and friends,” Kirby told PsyPost. “However, the world is more than just family and friends. And we have lots of divisions at the moment, separating people in to ‘us’ and ‘them’ categories.”

“What our study finds is, we can increase our moral concern if we spend time doing compassion practices. And that’s really cool, as it means we have a pathway to help close the perceived differences among us, which I think is a really hopeful message.”

One of the more intriguing aspects of the study was its examination of moral concern for “villains” — those who are typically seen as violators of social norms and therefore often placed outside the moral concern of many individuals. Villains, in this study, included entities such as murderers or other individuals who have committed serious wrongdoings.

At the two-week post-intervention mark, there was no significant increase in moral expansiveness towards villains within the intervention group itself. By the three-month follow-up, however, participants in the Compassion Focused Therapy group showed a significant increase in their moral expansiveness towards villains. This indicates that while the immediate effects of the therapy did not extend to those viewed as moral transgressors, over time, the cultivation of compassion led to a broader and more inclusive moral circle.

While the findings are promising, the study has some limitations. First, the sample consisted primarily of middle-class, highly educated, and predominantly female participants, which limits the generalizability of the results. Future studies should include more diverse populations to determine if the effects of Compassion Focused Therapy are universal. The study also relied on self-report measures, which are susceptible to biases such as social desirability, inaccurate self-perception, and response patterns that may not accurately reflect true behaviors.

“It was a randomised controlled study, but it would have been great to have included some kind of behavioral measure,” Kirby noted.

“The long-term goals are focused at trying to help people to become more concerned for others, people who they usually don’t think about in daily life. And to see if this can influence policy decisions, so we start to consider what sacrifices we might be willing to make to help give others an opportunity.”

The study, “A Brief Compassion Focused Therapy Intervention Can Increase Moral Expansiveness: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” was authored by James N. Kirby, April Hoang, and Charlie R. Crimston.