Short-term affective consequences of engaging in brief self-compassion and other-compassion exercises

Compassion-based interventions are widely used to promote emotional well-being, yet their differential effects on affective arousal level remain poorly understood. The present study examined the immediate affective consequences of brief self- and other-compassion writing exercises, differentiating between positive and negative affect across high- and low-arousal levels. Participants (N = 230) were randomized to either a self-compassion or an other-compassion condition. General positive affect (PA), high-arousal PA, low-arousal PA, general negative affect (NA), high-arousal NA, and low-arousal NA were assessed before and after the writing task. Mixed ANOVAs with time and conditions as factors were conducted as primary analyses. Results indicated that both conditions were associated with reductions in low-arousal NA, with significantly stronger decreases for self-compassion. Other-compassion additionally showed a significant decrease in high-arousal PA that was not observed in the self-compassion condition. These findings suggest that compassion-based writing exercises produce selective rather than broad immediate affective change, and that practicing compassion for others may carry a short-term affective cost in the form of reduced high-arousal PA. Potentially, this drop in high-arousal PA may function as a barrier to sustained engagement with other-compassion practices, particularly in culture that value high-arousal PA. Pairing other-compassion exercises with activities that boost or restore (high arousal) PA may therefore support more consistent engagement with compassion-based interventions.