Threat perception and compassionate reactions towards a suffering target: the role of dispositional compassion.

The present research explores people’s reactions to norms transgressions, with a particular focus on the role of dispositional compassion. Using a fictitious story, we manipulated the past performance (positive vs. negative) of a target individual who got injured at work. After being exposed to the scenarios, participants responded to a series of items investigating compassionate reactions, perception of threat and levels of dispositional compassion. Results showed that subjects expressed lower levels of compassionate reactions when the target’s behavior was negative. Furthermore, his behaviour was perceived as more threatening when he did not conform to moral norms concerning taking care of others.