One study, conducted by psychologists Piercarlo Valdesolo and Davdi DeSteno and published in the journal, Emotion, demonstrates that experiencing a commonality with a stranger is linked to the expression of compassion due to the feeling of mutual identification. In this study, something as small as tapping one’s hand in unison with a stranger, resulted in participants being more likely to help their partner complete a set of tasks voluntarily than after tapping discordantly with their matched stranger. This suggests that participants, who were willing to find the smallest association between themselves and their partners, were much more likely to find a sense of compassion and the need to assist.
Read the full article here: Compassion Made Easy.