Mapping compassion in the general adult population: religious and secular compassionate acts in social relationships and organizational culture

Background: Compassion, defined as recognizing suffering and acting to alleviate it, is increasingly acknowledged as a public health asset that enhances resilience, trust, and cooperation. Shown through interpersonal care, ethical leadership, and institutional backing, compassion influences social relationships and organizational culture, although interpretations differ across religious, secular, and cultural contexts. Clarifying how compassion is understood is crucial for fostering inclusive, supportive communities and workplaces, with existing literature linking it to mental health and community-rooted resilience. Objectives: This study examined how religious and secular ethics shape individuals' perceptions of compassion received from others, and how these experiences inform social relationships and collective activities. It further explored how compassionate behaviors in workplace settings contribute to organizational climate, an area of growing relevance in public health. Rather than measuring health outcomes directly, the study focused on identifying mechanisms and ingredients for cultivating compassion as a key enabler of public health, with its broader link to well-being supported by existing literature. Methods: Three rounds of online surveys were conducted with 877 working-age adults in the United States between January and April 2025. Participants represented diverse religious backgrounds, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and others. To preserve the conceptual breadth of "organization," no specific profession was defined, ensuring generalizability across public health contexts. Quantitative analyses employed frequency distributions, chi-square tests, and ANOVA, supplemented by path analysis to aggregate results. Qualitative data were examined through thematic narrative analysis and integrated with set theory models to theorize compassion's broader role. Results: < 0.001). Qualitative narratives revealed that compassion was interpreted as empathic acknowledgment, shaped by both religious traditions and secular experiences, and embedded in the social fabric of public and professional life. Conclusion: This study identifies receiving compassion as a valuable social and organizational resource, positioning it as a potential public health asset. Compassion strengthens social bonds within communities and workplaces, contributing to trust, cooperation, and resilience. Religious frameworks often interpreted compassion as sacred obligation, while secular frameworks emphasized fairness and civic responsibility, together illuminating compassion's versatility as both spiritual and civic resource. Limitations include reliance on self-reported data, broad framing of "organization," and a U.S.-based sample. Future research should employ longitudinal and observational designs to validate findings and explore how cultural contexts and intersecting identities shape interpretations of compassion.