Here are some videos related to compassion that Social Psychology students cited in their 2013 Day of Compassion essays and that course staff members located. In addition, you might find these pages of interest:
In this video, Oprah Winfrey interviews Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh about compassion, peace, and other topics. Nhat Hanh, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr., discusses how "compassionate listening" can relieve suffering, promote healing, and even reduce international conflict and terrorism. The video ends with a discussion of four mantras, or statements, that can strengthen and protect close relationships. For more information, see:
This viral video, created by Thai phone company True Move H, opens with a pharmacy owner shouting at a boy who has just been caught stealing medicine for his sick mother. The owner of a nearby café intervenes, pays for the stolen medicine, and gives the boy some vegetable soup to take with him. The story then jumps ahead 30 years, when the café owner collapses, is hospitalized, and remains unconscious as his daughter agonizes over how to pay his $25,000 bill. She falls asleep in her father's hospital room, and when she awakens, she sees a note saying, "All expenses paid 30 years ago with three packs of painkillers and a bag of veggie soup." As luck would have it, the boy whom her father helped 30 years earlier became the doctor who treated him. The video ends with the statement: "Giving is the best communication."
Mr. Happy Man: Johnny Barnes of Bermuda
10:36 minutes
One day in 1986 or so, retired bus driver Johnny Barnes of Bermuda began occupying a busy traffic roundabout and waving to people as they passed by, saying "I love you," "God loves you," and "I will always love you," smiling and blowing kisses to strangers and friends alike. After greeting commuters from roughly 4:00 am to 10:00 am every working day for more than a dozen years, Barnes became a Bermuda institution and was recognized with a life-size bronze statue of him blowing kisses in the air. The short-subject documentary Mr. Happy Man, which was released in 2011, describes Johnny Barnes and the positive effect he's had on others. For a few related pages and videos, see:
The Science of Happiness: An Experiment in Gratitude
7:14 minutes
In this episode of SoulPancake's "Science of Happiness," people were asked to think of someone who had played an influential role in their life, and to write down details about why this person was so important. Then, once they were done writing, they were handed a telephone and asked to read their statement aloud to the person whom they had chosen. This simple expression of gratitude led to substantial increases in happiness (in fact, the person who experienced the largest increase in happiness was the one who started out with the lowest level of happiness).
If We Could See Inside Other People's Heart
4:45 minutes
This video, produced by the Cleveland Clinic, opens with a question posed by Henry David Thoreau: "Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" The video then moves silently through a hospital, often in slow motion, revealing the private thoughts and feelings of patients, visitors, and employees. In the end, the video asks a question of its own: "If you could stand in someone else's shoes… would you treat them differently?"
The Hidden Power of Smiling
7:27 minutes
In this TED talk, Ron Gutman discusses the extraordinary impact that smiling has on human behavior and well-being. He begins by mentioning studies that have found a link between smiling and life outcomes such as marital satisfaction and longevity, and he cites research suggesting that the act of smiling reduces stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Best of all, smiling tends to be socially contagious, so it offers a way to reduce the stress and improve the mood of other people.
This music video shows how one act of compassion can lead to another, often by people noticing the behavior of those around them and following suit. In the video, one person spontaneously performs a good deed that's witnessed by another person who in turn performs a good deed that's witness by yet another person, and so on. Even though most of the acts take no more than 5 seconds to do, the end result is a kinder and more compassionate community. In the words of the song, written by a band named Noah and the Whale: "if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own."
Overcoming Diffusion of Responsibility
4:49 minutes
Although decades of research suggest that bystanders become less likely to intervene in an emergency when others are present and the responsibility to take action is diffused, there are plenty of cases in which people do come to each other's aid. This video contains what may be the most inspiring compilation of bystander intervention ever assembled.
The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society
1:29:32 minutes
This video was recorded when the Dalai Lama visited Stanford University on October 14, 2010. In the first half of the video, the Dalai Lama gives a lecture on the topic of compassion, and in the second half, Dr. James Doty, Director of Stanford's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), holds a question and answer session in which he reads questions that audience members submitted to the Dalai Lama. After a wide-ranging discussion, Dr. Doty ends the session with these words: "Oftentimes, when we see immeasurable suffering, we feel powerless or discouraged, but I tell you that each and every one of us has the capacity to make at least one person suffer less every day, so go forth and just do what you can do."
In this video, country music singer Glen Campbell performs his hit song "Less of Me," which begins:
Let me be a little kinder
Let me be a little blinder
To the faults of those about me
Let me praise a little more
Let me be when I am weary
Just a little bit more cheery
Think a little more of others
And a little less of me...
What Would Happen If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls?
12:49 minutes
NOTE: This video contains profanity and graphic scenes of animal cruelty; viewer discretion is advised.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney narrates this short documentary and calls on viewers to follow a meat-free diet. The video, which was produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, includes disturbing undercover footage from factory farms and slaughterhouses. After documenting the plight of food animals, Paul McCartney ends by saying: "It is only prejudice that allows anyone to think there's a difference between abusing a cat and abusing a chicken, or abusing a dog and abusing a pig. Suffering is suffering, no matter how you slice it. Eating meat is bad for our health, it's bad for the environment, and it directly supports appalling cruelty to animals. The decision is yours; please make the compassionate choice."
Michael Jackson Singing "Man in the Mirror"
5:02 minutes
In "Man in the Mirror," Michael Jackson sings about the importance of changing the world by changing yourself, by ending denial that others are suffering, and by taking action:
...I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
I've been a victim of a selfish kind of love
It's time that I realize
That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan
Could it be really me, pretending that they're not alone?
Change Your Words, Change Your World
1:48 minutes
This video is a commercial advertisement for an online content and copywriting business, but its message is a general one about the power of language to affect behavior. In the video, a blind beggar receives very little money until a woman changes his sign from "I'M BLIND PLEASE HELP" to words that mean much the same thing but lead people to feel empathy. In the end, the video shows how dramatically people's behavior changes when they're led to take the perspective of another person.
