Welcome to the 2020s, The Decade of Compassion!
Why now? Three key attributes of this moment point to this being the right time, the critical time.
Our world is at a point in its economic development when cooperation will be much more important for the advancement of the human species than will competition. Compassion will be the fuel to lead us forward toward cooperation.
The scientific understanding of compassion, whether from an evolutionary or from a neurological perspective, teaches us that we all have a natural capacity for compassion. Being compassionate is our most natural state, and research also shows how acting compassionately leads to better outcomes for all involved.
There is nothing short of the survival of the planet at stake.
From the beginning of humanity, our choices have been driven by a balance between competition and cooperation. To dramatically over-simplify, we have cooperated with our own family and community while we have competed with the “other” for limited resources. That is the way humans have operated for hundreds of thousands of years, and frankly that is still how we are acting.
The world is at a point in its economic path when it has the opportunity to value cooperation over competition. There is enough to go around! Buckminster Fuller imagined a world of cooperation in his Integrity Day talks in 1983, when he said, “It could be the most significant turning point in our evolution because it meant we could move from a you-or-me world — a world where either you or I make it, and where we need to compete and fight to see who wins — to a you-and-me world, where all of us can make it.” Since that time, the global real economic output per person has almost doubled. If this “you-and-me world“ was imaginable in the early eighties, it is even more possible now – from an economic point of view – than it was then.
Next, we have a much greater understanding of compassion, its origins, and its effects than ever before, thanks to powerful scientific research of recent decades. We know that compassion is an innate skill of humans. With practice, it can be learned and strengthened. And when we act with compassion, the positive impacts are remarkable, on each individual and the collective.
Children as young as six months understand non-verbal messages about care and compassion, and choose compassionate toys over unhelpful ones. Children as young as two will stop what they are doing to help someone in need. Contrary to what many of us might think, brain research shows that we have an orientation toward optimism and positive beliefs. Our brain processes positive information more quickly than negative information.
But our predisposition to compassion, which comes from our evolution as mammals, is not our only orientation. An even earlier part of our brain protects us with survival instincts. We are always on the lookout for threats, and (positive orientation above notwithstanding) ready to fight, flee, or freeze at the first sign of a threat. That survival instinct us served us well when we lived on the open savanna and the threat came from animals or rivals who could kill us. Without the constant focus on survival, we can now turn our attention to training our cooperative, compassionate brain.
Where compassion is exercised, organizations and communities thrive. Compassion is shown to have a positive benefit on life expectancy, blood pressure, stress hormone levels, and recovery from illness. Compassion is contagious, and a single act of compassion is likely to increase the compassionate responses of those who witness the act. Compassion naturally increases our perception of what we have. When we volunteer, for example, we feel like we have more time, and when we give money away, we feel like we are wealthier. Bottom line, acting compassionately makes us happier and makes those around us happier.
Today, as we stand at the start of the 2020s, we have the global resources to prioritize compassion and cooperation over competition. Now that we understand our capacity for compassion better than ever, we clearly can choose to live this way! Our global circumstances tell us that this isn’t just an option; it’s a mandate. The costs of not getting this right could be catastrophic, with global climate change and hatred threatening the survival of the human species.
We have risen to the challenge before. Cooperation between long-time rivals has led to a reduction of 85% in the nuclear arsenal worldwide over the last thirty years. We recently entered the third decade that the UN has declared to be a decade of the eradication of poverty. In the first two of those decades, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty was cut by almost 70%.
So, let’s make the 2020s the Decade of Compassion. Our acts of kindness will ripple outward, and have impact in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our government. Start with compassion for yourself, and watch it grow for others. The choices each of us make to be a changemaker have the power to alter the course of history for the benefit of all.
Most of the articles listed below are easy to find on the internet and we hope that these references will be helpful in your journey of compassion. The references are listed in the order that they appear in the blog post above.
Global GDP data: World Bank measure of GDP per capita (constant 2010 US$).
Compassion is innate and appears in six-month-olds and two-year-olds: “Social evaluation by preverbal infants” by J. Kiley Hamlin et al.
Compassion can be learned and strengthened: Many sources including “Compassion Training Alters Altruism and Neural Responses to Suffering” by Helen Y. Weng et al.
We have an orientation to optimism: “Neural mechanisms mediating optimism bias” by Tali Sharot et al.
Compassion and life expectancy: An excellent review of the wide range of research around this topic is the chapter “Compassionate Neurobiology and Health” by Stephanie L. Brown and R. Michael Brown in The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science.
Compassion and blood pressure and stress hormone: “Is compassion for others stress buffering? Consequences of compassion and social support for physiological reactivity to stress” by Brandon J. Cosley et al.
Compassion is contagious: “Elevation Leads to Altruistic Behavior” by Simone Schnall et al.
Volunteer or give money to feel like you have more time or wealth: “Giving Time Gives You Time” by Cassie Mogilner et al covers the volunteering time segment while “Prosperity through Philanthropy” by Zoe Chance and Michael Norton illustrates the wealth aspect.
Nuclear warhead reduction: Our World in Data.
Poverty cut almost 70%: World Bank’s “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016.”
Photo Credit: sydneynewyearseve(dot)com.