Compassion persists: The effects of repeated exposure to suffering on compassion

Is compassion more analogous to an infinite well in which individuals have unending reserves or a finite resource that wanes with use? To investigate this question, we created and tested a standardized acute paradigm in which participants repeatedly witnessed others' suffering. We longitudinally measured subjective, expressive, and physiological markers of compassion as participants watched 12 (Study 1 and preregistered Study 2) or 29 (preregistered Study 3) pilot-tested compassion-inducing videos. We repeatedly measured self-reports of compassion along with other measures, expressions of compassion, and physiological markers of compassion (e.g., respiratory sinus arrhythmia). Across three studies (N_total = 677), self-reports, expressions, and physiological markers of compassion showed no evidence of decline; instead, they remained stable or increased over time. We found evidence for changes in other psychological measures (e.g., greater reported difficulty coping) across the paradigm and documented declines in well-being along with the emergence of compassion fatigue symptoms from pre- to postparadigm. These findings suggest that the experience of compassion persists even in the face of repeated exposure to others' suffering, and that phenomena like compassion fatigue may reflect the burden of sustaining compassion rather than a decline in compassion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).