Everyday Heroes: Making a Case for Compassionate Behavior toward Strangers

Helping and supportive behavior that reduced the suffering of others laid the foundation for the interconnected society we live in today, so why does it currently feel disconnected and chaotic? One need not look further than the news in 2020 to see that we have unprecedented awareness of human incivility and violence. Small but significant acts of compassion toward strangers are necessary to move our world past the unprecedented pain in which it is currently suffering. Compassion makes us aware of suffering in others, but also brings forth the best in us: our kindness, our willingness to help, our connection to humanity. This wellspring of goodness is studied within and amplified by positive psychology, or the study of what is good in an individual, family or organizational system. Amplification of individual resources is necessary so that individuals have the resources to achieve greater resilience and enact more pro-social behaviors in the face of the challenges we see in our modern society.