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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compassion fade | 5/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_fade | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:44:00.490623+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Provision of aid === Compassion fade is illustrated by the reluctance to respond to crises in a global scale affecting large numbers of people. Evidence shows that compassionate behaviour (i.e. financial donations, acts of service) diminish as the number of those in need increases. Research on charitable donations indicates donations are negatively related to the number of people in need. For example, in 2014 the Ebola outbreak saw the loss of over 3400 lives and donations to the American Red Cross was $100,000 over a six-month period. However, in 2015 a crowdfunding campaign for a child in New York to visit Harvard raised over $1.2 million in a one-month period.
=== Environmental crises === Compassion fade research is extended to the environmental domain where the lack of response to environmental challenges, such as climate change, pose a threat to millions of unidentified victims. However, studies have shown the effects of compassion fade may differ with non-human animals:
An experiment by Hsee and Rottenstreich (2004) tested the identifiable victim effect as an outcome of compassion fade. The researchers found the donations to help a single versus a group of four pandas was not significantly different. A study by Hart (2011) found that people information about the detrimental effects of climate change on polar bears elicited a stronger response when presented with a large number of polar bears rather than a single identifiable one. Ritov and Kogut (2011) have demonstrated identifiable victim effects only occurred when helping out-group members. Researchers concluded that these findings suggest the extent of environmental compassion fade is more subject to individual differences and perceptions of non-human lives.
=== Other experiments ===
==== Cameron and Payne (2011) ==== A 2011 experiment by C. Daryl Cameron and B. Keith Payne tested whether removing a source of motivation to regulate emotion would reduce the collapse of compassion. Other researchers who also did studies included measures of three alternative explanations for the collapse of compassion: psychological distance, diffusion of responsibility, and success in helping the victims. People might experience less emotion toward multiple victims because they feel a greater psychological distance from these victims; because they feel less responsible for helping; or because they feel that their helping will not matter much. If these alternatives were to be eliminated however, these explanations would more support the financial cost as a critical factor in the collapse of compassion. The nine items measuring compassion were averaged together. A two-way between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of help request and number of victims on compassion. While there were no significant main effects of either of the two, there was a significant interaction between them. The pattern of means for the interaction between compassion, help request, and number of victims was displayed; this interaction suggests that the difference in compassion toward 1 versus 8 victims depended upon whether participants expected to be asked to help those victims. Cameron and Payne probed the interaction by first examining the effect of the help request separately in the 1-victim and 8-victim groups. In the 1-victim condition, there was no significant effect of help request on compassion. In the 8-victim condition, by contrast, participants reported significantly greater compassion when they would not be asked to help than when they would be asked to help. Cameron and Payne also examined the effect of number of victims separately in the help-request and no-help-request conditions. When help was requested, participants reported numerically greater compassion toward a single victim than toward eight, although this simple effect was not significant. In contrast, when help was not requested, eight victims elicited significantly more compassion than one victim. By removing the expectation that participants would be asked to donate money, they were able to reverse the typical collapse of compassion pattern.
==== Tam (2016) ==== In 2016, Northeastern University honours student Ka Ho Tam hired 242 undergrad students to participate in his study, where they would read stories of people from different parts of the world who shared their experiences (e.g. having a family gathering) or specific to a particular culture (e.g. celebrating an Ethiopian festival). Thereafter participants of 1 to 8 poverty-stricken Ethiopian children, along with a description of how people from that part of Ethiopia are suffering. Lastly, these participants did questionnaires to measure similarity with and compassion toward the Ethiopian children. Tam found that the reading of the shared experiences drew out compassion toward a single victim and not multiple victims. This can be further explained by saying that people actively suppress compassion when they think it might be overwhelming; this means that humans respond to the suffering of others based on their own self-interest.
== Compassion fatigue ==
Compassion fade and the collapse of compassion may be linked to the concept of compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue happens to those in positions where a significant amount of time is spent responding to information related to suffering; this especially includes professions that are centered around helping others, like health care workers, educators, social workers, emergency responders, and so forth. In addition, people who take care of family members can experience this fatigue. They experience 'burnout', wherein they are emotionally and/or physically exhausted, thereby lessening their compassion and empathy for others in their work. As such, the difference between compassion fade and compassion fatigue is that the former refers to the individual's attitude towards helping people whom they do not know, or aid needed in the world; in contrast, compassion fatigue is more concerned with the people whom the individual works and interacts with often. Some research has suggested that it is the lack of suitable distress tolerance that gets people fatigued in compassion activities. It has been suggested that practice of nonjudgmental compassion can prevent fatigue and burnout.
== See also == Effective altruism List of cognitive biases Moral emotions Moral psychology Slacktivism
== References ==