Daniel Lim

Background Does experiencing adversity engender kindness, and if so, for whom? Two studies tested the hypothesis that adversity predicts increased pro‐social outcomes, and that this relationship is strongest for individuals who view others as good and trustworthy, or benevolent . Method In Study 1, a cross‐sectional survey design was utilized, and...

We started questioning why some leaders in organizations have more empathy with their subordinates and what causes that empathy. The hypothesis was that there might be a correlation between different leadership styles, their empathy with the employees, and their state of mindfulness. To validate it, we recruited individuals via MTurk to complete a...

Feelings of guilt can often result from the onset of adverse life events. Although guilt is often linked to psychological dysfunction, emerging findings suggest that it can also act as a powerful moral force in motivating compassion. Yet, little work has been done to examine how guilt, as a function of surviving past adversity, can affect people's...

Past research has suggested that one problematic limitation of compassion is its seeming resistance to increase in response to growing numbers of targets in distress. This insensitivity to numeracy results in the dampening of compassion when faced with mass suffering. Given that emerging evidence suggests that facing past adversity in life may fost...

Past research has suggested that one problematic limitation of compassion is its seeming resistance to increase in response to growing numbers of targets in distress. This insensitivity to numeracy results in the dampening of compassion when faced with mass suffering. Given that emerging evidence suggests that facing past adversity in life may fost...

Gratitude has traditionally been linked to behaviors involving the exchange of economic or social resources. As such, it motivates people to repay debts to benefactors. However, given its emerging links to self-control – itself a necessary factor for repaying debts – the possibility arises that gratitude might enhance other virtues unrelated to exc...

Gratitude has been linked to behaviors involving the exchange of resources. As such, it motivates people to repay debts to benefactors. However, given its links to self-control – itself a necessary factor for repaying debts – the possibility arises that gratitude might enhance other virtues unrelated to exchange that depend on an ability to resist...

Meditation has been advocated as a mental practice designed to reduce suffering and increase virtuous behavior. Although it has been previously linked to altruistic acts, its ability to reduce aggression and related retributive behaviors remains open to question. Here we report on an experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to a mind...

Although negative experiences are often paired with undeniable negative outcomes, they may also offer adaptive learning and growth opportunities (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). For example, Croft, Dunn, & Quoidbach (2014) find that a past history of hardship predicts higher levels of the positive emotion regulation strategy savoring, which involves enh...

Experiencing past adversity traditionally has been linked to negative life outcomes. However, emerging evidence suggests that heterogeneity exists with respect to links between adversity and resilience, with adversity often enhancing cooperation in the face of joint suffering. Here, the authors present 2 studies designed to examine if the severity...

Emerging evidence suggests that meditation engenders prosocial behaviors meant to benefit others. However, the robustness, underlying mechanisms, and potential scalability of such effects remain open to question. The current experiment employed an ecologically valid situation that exposed participants to a person in visible pain. Following three-we...