Compassion is not a feeling, it is an action

Is compassion the same as pity? In the famous biblical parable, the good Samaritan comes across a beaten man. Different versions of the passage in Luke variously hold that the Samaritan “had compassion on him”, “took pity on him”, or even “felt sorry for him”.

The point of the parable, of course, is that the Samaritan didn’t just feel bad; he cared for the man, which to me makes compassion the compelling description.

The Warsaw Uprising Museum commemorates Polish soldiers who helped Jewish people. However, a study found many unarmed civilians when ordered to.Credit: Alamy

When we think of ourselves, or our society, as compassionate, what do we mean? When we see something alarming, such as someone being harmed, most of us will feel intense emotions, but what do we do in response? And what if we’re actively and knowingly involved in causing pain?

Genuine compassion involves taking action, which may well come at a personal cost. The higher the price of that personal cost, the less compassionate, it seems, we become.

Christopher Browning’s signature study on this topic, Ordinary Men, soberly concluded that “only a minority of perhaps 10 per cent – and certainly no more than 20 per cent” of one particular reserve battalion in Poland refused orders to kill unarmed civilians during the Holocaust.

Browning’s conclusions accord with other unflattering studies of human behaviour, such as Stanley Milgram’s controversial and still-disputed shock-administration experiments. But before we rush to pathologise humanity, there is an upside.

A significant minority of people will do what they believe to be right, regardless of the pressure on them. Moreover, religious, political and legal doctrines have evolved to steer society away from actively harming or ignoring the harm caused to marginalised and at-risk people.

Major religions call us to stand up for oppressed people. And it’s long been recognised that even democratic systems of government need constraints to be in place to prevent any “tyranny of the majority” from occurring, and to protect human rights.

So does the observance of these principles, tenets and laws make societies, and the individuals within them, compassionate?

Not necessarily. They clearly assist, but to be compassionate, a person, and indeed a society, need to act. This can be in signature and sometimes even heroic ways. But it can also involve less remarkable responses.

People will usually go out of their way to help others.Credit: Think Stock

And at this level, there is considerable cause for optimism. Humans are ever ready, it would appear, to undertake simple, undramatic compassionate acts. One important 2023 study by Giovanni Rossi and colleagues of more than 300 people across eight cultures found that when people have the chance to help others, and not just family members, “they will usually do so”.

Instinctively, we know this to be true. We can all think of the small ways in which people have helped us, or vice versa, expecting nothing in return. So the inclination towards compassion is there. We just need to ensure that nothing else – including our own fear – gets in the way.

John Chesterman is the Queensland Public Advocate.

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