Is Avoiding Other People’s Suffering Good for Your Mental Health? (Elizabeth Svoboda)

An international study finds that people who turn away from compassion have felt more depressed and anxious during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As COVID-19 ricocheted around the globe, millions of us sought shelter in retreat. Not only were we quarantining at home, we were putting up internal walls against the suffering we saw in the world. For more than a year, it’s been easy to justify an inward focus rather than an outward one.

But a new study suggests that retreating from compassion in the name of safety may not protect us as we hope. Shutting off our compassionate response during the pandemic may threaten our mental health, the research team found, and fray the social connections that sustain our well-being. more...