The role of common humanity and mindfulness in compassion

Abstract

There is an urgent need for improving the well-being of students. The current project suggests compassion as a key candidate to enhance students’ well-being and investigates factors that can cultivate compassion. Mindfulness and common humanity are identified as two enhancing factors. A 2 (Mindfulness: High vs. Low) X 2 (Common Humanity: High vs. Low) factorial experimental design is employed to test whether mindfulness and common humanity can enhance compassion and its associated positive outcomes. The results provided partial support of common humanity as an enhancing factor of compassion. Conceptual and applied issues of compassion are also discussed in this article.