Some jobs are particularly demanding because they require showing compassion toward people who are suffering. It is often assumed that those who have already faced and overcome difficulties themselves are best positioned to understand and support others in pain. However, Livne-Tarandach, Jazaieri, and Caridad Rabelo published an article in the Journal of Organizational Behavior showing that this is not necessarily the case.
The authors conducted three studies exploring how the responses of people who had suffered in the past differed from those who had not experienced similar challenges. They found that those who had faced problems resembling those of the individuals they wanted to help actually showed less compassion. This was because their responses were more self-focused, they validated the other’s suffering less, and they tended to overestimate the quality of their impact.
The authors conclude that organizations implementing helping interventions—whether to support clients in difficulty, provide mentorship, or offer assistance to employees—should focus on training rather than selecting people who have lived through similar hardships. They aptly suggest that compassion does not come from offering solutions based on one’s own past experiences, but from curiosity and openness to understanding the other person’s experience.