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Abstract:
Compassion has been suggested to be a strong motivator for prosocial behavior. While research has demonstrated that
compassion training has positive effects on mood and health, we do not know whether it also leads to increases in prosocial
behavior. We addressed this question in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we introduce a new prosocial game, the Zurich
Prosocial Game (ZPG), which allows for repeated, ecologically valid assessment of prosocial behavior and is sensitive to the
influence of reciprocity, helping cost, and distress cues on helping behavior. Experiment 2 shows that helping behavior in
the ZPG increased in participants who had received short-term compassion training, but not in participants who had
received short-term memory training. Interindividual differences in practice duration were specifically related to changes in
the amount of helping under no-reciprocity conditions. Our results provide first evidence for the positive impact of shortterm
compassion training on prosocial behavior towards strangers in a training-unrelated task.
