Newsweek has an article on human good and evil that trots out
the usual Milgram-fuelled moral pondering before morphing into a
fascinating piece on the psychology of compassion. The most
interesting part is where it discusses which psychological
traits predict compassionate behaviour: A specific cluster of
emotional traits seem to go along with compassion. People who
are emotionally secure, who view life’s problems as manageable
and who feel safe and protected tend to show the greatest
empathy for strangers and to act altruistically and
compassionately. In contrast, people who are anxious about their
own worth and competence, who avoid close relationships or are
clingy in those they have tend to be less altruistic and less
generous, psychologists Philip Shaver of the University of
California, Davis, and Mario Mikulincer of Bar-Ilan University
in Israel have found in a series of experiments. Such people are
less likely to care for the elderly, for instance, or to donate
blood. The Newsweek article labels these