Benefactors across person, time, and place: The environments that help prime wellbeing and compassion

Abstract

Situational variables influence behavior across domains of health, decision-making, and morality. A key situational factor that influences compassion includes the presence of benefactors within one’s internal emotional processing of the environment. Benefactors refer to people, moments, and places that elicit experiences of care, wellbeing, and safety. In this article, I draw on literature from attachment theory, contemplative psychology, and concept formation to develop a theoretical framework to inform 1) how benefactor experiences help prime and shape compassionate states and prosocial action, and 2) how people can attune to situations that evoke care and safety so as to construct care more readily across settings and environments. This provides a framework for understanding how compassion is transmitted across groups and populations.