People who see suffering as universal and enriching cope better, five studies find

Across five studies with over 2,200 participants, seeing suffering as shared and potentially enriching was linked to less distress and better adjustment, and in a 1,151-person experiment, an enriching framing lifted mood while a universal framing raised common humanity.

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How people think about suffering in general may shape how well they cope with their own. Across five studies, researchers found that people who see suffering as something everyone shares, and as something that can enrich a life, report less distress and better well-being.

The study, Beliefs About Suffering, Psychological Adjustment, and Prosocial Orientation, was published open access in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin on August 31, 2026. It was led by Jinyoung Park of Duke University with Mark R. Leary and Rick Hoyle of Duke, Christine Lathren of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, John M. Davis of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Mark Weiser of Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center.

Common problems hurt less

In Study 1, 293 undergraduates listed their three most distressing current problems and estimated how common each was. Those who saw their problems as more common felt less upset and rated them as less unfair.

Students who rated their lifetime suffering as similar to the average person’s reported better adjustment. A view of suffering as enriching was linked to higher well-being and less depression, catastrophizing and neuroticism, while a view of suffering as depressing went with poorer adjustment.

Study 2, with 289 US adults recruited online, largely replicated this. Smaller gaps between one’s own and others’ suffering were linked to more resilience, self-compassion and identification with community and country. When asked to list universal human experiences, 95% spontaneously named at least one involving suffering.

In Study 3, 397 US adults imagined everyday misfortunes befalling themselves or someone else. Those holding a depressing view expected events to feel worse, take longer to get over and cause more distress.

Suffering beliefs during a war

Study 4 surveyed 158 Jewish Israeli adults during the 2024 Gaza conflict. Seeing suffering as enriching was associated with better mental health, including less anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms and sleep disturbance, and with a stronger sense of common humanity and more support for peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The depressing view was linked to poorer mental health.

A brief framing shifted mood and compassion

The final study was an experiment. After a pilot of 348 people, 1,151 US adults read a passage framing suffering as either universal or not, and as either enriching or depressing.

Reading that suffering can be enriching produced lower negative affect and higher positive affect than reading that it is depressing, whatever the universality framing. Framing suffering as universal increased the common-humanity component of compassion, regardless of the meaning framing.

The authors call their results preliminary. Studies 1 to 4 were cross-sectional and cannot show cause and effect, the outcomes were mostly self-reported, and the suffering-belief measures were newly developed. The experiment showed only short-term effects, and it remains unclear whether lasting beliefs or actual helping behavior can be changed.

All five studies’ data, materials and analysis code are posted on the Open Science Framework.

Study Details:

  • Title: Beliefs About Suffering, Psychological Adjustment, and Prosocial Orientation
  • Authors: Jinyoung Park, Mark R. Leary, Christine Lathren, John M. Davis, Mark Weiser, Rick Hoyle
  • Journal: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
  • Publication Date: August 31, 2026
  • DOI: 10.1177/01461672261475828