The expression of compassionate love in everyday compassionate acts

Abstract

Compassionate love (CL) is a form of altruistic, caring love that emphasizes concern for the other’s well-being. How is CL expressed in marriage? To address this question, we adopted a behavioral acts perspective in which we examined among newlyweds the presence or absence of a series of behavioral manifestations of CL. A sample of 175 newlywed couples completed daily diaries for 2 weeks, describing their own compassionate acts and their perceptions of their partners’ compassionate acts. We found clear evidence that CL acts contributed to both spouses’ daily marital satisfaction. These effects were independent of general positivity or negativity of behavior. We also employed a quasi-signal detection analysis to determine whether acts that both partners recognize as compassionate are more influential than acts that only one of them acknowledges. This hypothesis was supported. Our findings indicate that CL-related behavior represents a beneficial form of caring interaction that merits further attention in relationship research.