Compassion

Compassion is a positive response and desire to help with an inner motivation to lessen or prevent suffering of others.^[1][2][3][4]

Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help physical, spiritual, or emotional hurts or pains of another. The word “compassion” comes from Latin and Greek to mean “to suffer with.” Compassion means to suffer with another, and it includes a spontaneous desire to alleviate that suffering.^[4] Pity and compassion are closely related words but have subtle differences. The difference is that compassion usually involves some commitment to help. Pity does not usually require any personal involvement.^[5]

1. ↑ Compassion: An Evolutionary Analysis and Empirical Review
2. ↑ What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures - ScienceDirect
3. ↑ Compassion Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2011)
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Lopez, Shane J. (2009). The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-6125-1.
5. ↑ David Konstan, Pity Transformed (London: Duckworth, 2001), pp. 21–22