Home Index Page Compassion Research Survey Results
Last updated:
Oct, 2011
Author: W. David Hoisington, Ph. D.
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Introduction:

Overview of the Sample Population: Preliminary  Graphs

The start of a research examination of compassion needs to begin with how it is defined.  What is compassion?  What do we mean when we use the term? If we are doing research that we hope will have meaning for others then does our definition of compassion fit with the population we are addressing?  The focus of the compassion survey (click to go to the survey) was simple.  How do people define compassion?  The hypothesis was that peoples definitions would fall into groupings which fit the Theory of Compassion Development (click to find the theory paper).

We did have some secondary questions that explored the relationships between age, experience, training, support, self concept of compassion, and one's definition of compassion.  In addition the definition of compassion was asked in several different ways.

There is a wealth of information to analyze and we have waited three years to begin this work until the data set was over 300.  This sample size allows us to explore the relationships between many different smaller sub groups within the total data set - for example are there differences between men and women?  We are looking to increase the sample size to 500.

As a preliminary introduction to the data set, we present a series of graphs with a brief analysis.  The graph shown below supports the cental mission of the Compassion Information Institute.

Sampling:

The sampling procedure had three components.  First, we placed the survey on the the compassion website.  This seemed logical in that people who visited the compasion website were likely to be people who were interested in compassion, and furthermore, if they actually took the time to do the survey that probably indicated a greater interest.  Although this is a bias in the sampling it is one that fits well with the purpose of the survey - to obtain definitions of compassion.  Hopefully those people who showed an interest also had developed thoughts about their own definition.

In addition graduate students in the school of counseling (about 15 a year) were asked to complete the survey.  Many of these students were adult learners who had professional experience helping others.

As we started to get over 200 responses we noticed that over half of the sample was composed of people over the age of 45 and that we had a small number who were 25 and under.  To help bolster this number we asked freshmen students taking introduction to psychology to complete the survey.  This was done two times, adding aproximately 40 responses mostly to that younger age.

The response percentage to each of the questions on the survey is given below (D=demographic and S=survey).

 Compassion Survey Results -  Preliminary

On the left, more than 90% of the survey respondents think that compassion can be improved within most people.

The cental mission of the Compassion Information Institute is to provide information to people about compassion.  The goal is to help people improve their understanding of compassion, and to improve the strength and depth of their practice.  This will help them develop their compassion to new levels.

One can start with the basic papers on compassion, in particular the "Theory of Compassion Development".

On the left, it is clear that most of the respondents do not spend time in the study of compassion.

One of the goals of the Compassion Information Institute is to provide ways to make compassion information more accessible.  For example:

 

And also "The Compassionate Journey"

On the left, it is clear that most of the respondents have not received training in compassion.  This is totally understandable because there are very few places (in the USA where most respondents are from) offering compasion training.
 
One of the goals of the Compassion Information Institute is to provide different ways that compassion training can be made available.

On the right, the majority of the respondents said they tried to help another person develop their compassion. This again supports the mission of the Compassion Information Institute.

If we are going to "pass it on", and it looks like people are trying to do that, then it is helpful to have knowledge about compasion. This is summarized on the

 

The survey respondents may not have had compassion training, but they are practicing compassion weekly, and often in some professional capacity.  This is illustrated in the two graphs below.   Another reason to give these people support.
The type of helping done by the survey respondents is represented in the graph and table.

We have added to the survey additional categories (as of May 15, 2011) to address most of the "other" answers.  A new graph will be presented in the future. A table will contain the remaining "other".

Most of the survey respondents were female, but a significant number were male.   Preliminary comparative gender analysis, looking at the "average" female and "average" male responses in the survey, shows little significant differences based on gender.
The ages of the survey respondents are shown in the graph below.  There is a skew toward the older ages, but do people of different ages give different responses in the survey? 
Above right shows the responses to talking with others about compasion.  This graph can be looked at in combination with the graphs that ask about support for compassion (see below).  It is easier to talk about compassion with others if there is support.

It is easier to talk about compassion, and provide support to others, if we can come to some common understanding about the nature of compassion. 



This starts with how we define compassion, but moves beyond that into what steps it takes to live a life of compassion, to become strong in compassion, and to pass it on. 



These are goals all tied into the mission statement of the Compassion Information Institute.

There are hundreds of analyses that can be done on the data collected from this survey.   The details will be shown in graph form, with discusssion, once the data set increases in size (over 500).

Pass it on, get others to do the survey to help further this research.

This next graph is quite interesting.  It shows respondents answers to the question about compassion being instinctual.  The answers are spread about the options with the answer no having the lowest percent.  The interesting aspects to this are that almost 55% (maybe plus I don't know) of the respondents are not sure.

When you look at this graph and compare it to the first graph at the top (can people develop compassion) then a question follows: If we believe that compassion can be developed then where does the initial sense of it come from?

The next two graphs show something which is uplifting and perhaps "myth busting".  The graphs are of answers to the question about significance of  life impact by a person with little compassion and a person with abundant compassion.  The graphs clearly show that the person with abundant compassion had more of an impact then the person with little compassion.   The "myth busting" is that in our violence saturated media we are often left with the image of the terrible impact caused by a person of little compassion.  Yet, these results say that a person of abundant compassion can leave a more powerful impact, perhaps a life changing one.

Compare

Sample size is 370 as of Oct. 2011

The final graph is one we expect to do use for subgroup analysis.  There is a group of respondents who said that they are compassionate all of the time. Do these people have different answers in the survey?
Do the other categories show any significant differences?  Then finally does this tell us anything about how we define and understand compassion?
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