Running Head: COMPASSION AND VAGAL ACTIVITY 1 Affective and Physiological Responses to the Suffering of Others: Compassion and Vagal Activity

Compassion is an affective response to another's suffering and a catalyst of prosocial behavior. In the present studies we explore the peripheral physiological changes associated with the experience of compassion. Guided by longstanding theoretical claims, we propose that compassion is associated with activation in the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system through the vagus nerve. Across four studies, participants witnessed others suffer while we recorded physiological measures including heart rate, respiration, skin conductance, and a measure of vagal activity called respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Participants exhibited greater RSA during the compassion induction compared to a neutral control (Study 1), another positive emotion (Study 2), and a prosocial emotion lacking appraisals of another person's suffering (Study 3). Greater RSA during the experience of compassion compared to the neutral or control emotion were often accompanied by lower heart rate and respiration, but no differences in skin conductance. In Study 4, increases in RSA during compassion positively predicted an established composite of compassion-related words, continuous self-reports of compassion, and nonverbal displays of compassion. Compassion, a core affective component of empathy and prosociality, increases parasympathetic activity. (180 Words) Suffering is a defining experience in human social life. The suffering of others evokes strong affective responses in observers. These emotions include feelings of distress, empathic concern for the suffering of another person, coupled with the desire to alleviate that suffering