Cross-Cultural Comparison of Compassion: An In-Depth Analysis of Cultural Differences in Compassion Using the Compassion of Others’ Lives (COOL) Scale

Abstract

Compassion has been touted as a primal element that assists in both the recognition and alleviation of another’s grief, pain, or misfortune. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the Compassion of Others’ Lives (COOL) Scale across cultures, as well as identify differences in compassion between individuals in the U.S., Latin America, and Turkey. Importantly, the COOL Scale was found to be sufficiently valid after being translated from English into Turkish and Spanish. The 3 groups of data collected consisted of samples from the U.S., 10 South American countries, and Turkey, respectively, with a total of 1,602 participants. A Welch ANOVA test was conducted to determine if there were significant differences at (p <.05) between the data collected from these 3 cultures. Findings concluded significant differences at (p ≤.03) for each subset; empathy (F = 27.47) and behavior alleviating suffering scores (F = 3.54) as well as the total level of compassion (5.31). Further analysis using a Games Howell Post Hoc showed where the specific differences were for empathy, alleviating suffering, and total score for each culture. The U.S. sample had a significantly higher total COOL score than the Turkish sample. Latin America scored higher for empathy than the U.S., and the U.S. scored significantly higher for empathy than Turkey.