We propose that higher self-compassion reduces individuals' perceptions of a downside risk to self-change. In Study 1 (N = 490), we surveyed participants' self-compassion and goal perceptions while recently giving up an important attachment. In Study 2 (N = 163), we examined these topics prospectively over 10 baseline and 10 challenge days, in which participants tried to restrict their social media use to <= 30 min/day. Both studies controlled for prior well-being. Higher self-compassion predicted higher perceptions of goal feasibility (Study 1) and lower fear of failure, fear of missing out, and perceived downside risks to reducing social media use before and during the challenge phase (Study 2). These findings provide new insight into self-compassion's role in behavioral decision-making and self-control.

Do people with a life history of responding adaptively to personal losses worry less about potential losses in the future? The present research tested the hypothesis that individuals higher in self-compassion would value potential losses less during decision-making. In Study 1, crowdsourced participants (N = 305) in an online survey completed measures of their preoccupation with avoiding losses and answered investment scenarios with escalating loss-potential. Those higher in self-compassion reported lower assessment vs. locomotion modes of self-regulation, prevention vs. promotion regulatory focus, and fear of invalidity. They also invested larger amounts in the scenario with the highest loss-potential and took more "double-or-nothing" chances for gain. In Study 2, undergraduate participants (N = 205) in an in-lab experiment showed similar trait-correlations as in Study 1. Those higher in self-compassion took greater chances of misremembering items in a game with high-penalty vs. low-penalty instructions. The results link self-compassion with ordinary cost/benefit decision-making and may, therefore, have implications for the development of self-control.

Objective: Self-compassion can help people when they make mistakes, but does it affect how people respond when falsely accused of making a mistake? In this research we tested the hypothesis that self-compassion is associated with lower levels of anger after a false accusation which, in turn, lowers the likelihood that people will attempt to challenge the accusation.Method: In Studies 1a (N = 422) and 1b (N = 492), participants imagined that they were playing in an important tennis match and were falsely accused by an official of making an error. In Study 2 (N = 346), participants completed an online survey that, at one point, displayed a message accusing them of plagiarising one of their responses. Results: In all studies, self-compassion assessed prior to the accusation was negatively associated with levels of anger following the accusation. Anger, in turn, was positively associated with intentions to challenge the accusation (Studies 1a and 1b) and with the likelihood that participants brought the false accusation to our attention when given an opportunity to do so (Study 2). Conclusion: This research shows that highly self-compassionate people are not always ferocious and may be susceptible to being taken advantage of when facing false accusations.

Self-compassionate individuals respond kindly to their own mistakes. Although self-compassion is adaptive in coping with past mistakes, few studies have examined its relationship to risky decision-making in advance. In gambling, an open and understanding disposition toward possible losses could lead to either more or less risky decision-making, and the direction of this relationship could depend on the severity of individuals’ problem gambling. Across 3 laboratory studies with undergraduates, the present research tested how dispositional self-compassion relates to risky decision-making in gambling games, and whether individuals’ severity of problem gambling moderates this relationship. The results suggest that self-compassion has little relationship to gambling decisions by those with no signs of problem gambling already, and that higher self-compassion is associated with taking more gambling risks among undergraduates with low-level or more severe problem gambling. We discuss implications for future research on the complex relationship of self-compassion to risk and well-being.

Self-compassion is associated with many positive outcomes and is generally viewed as an adaptive way of responding during difficult times. But self-compassion has also been positively associated with savoring, a way of responding to positive experiences that involves attempting to sustain or intensify positive emotions, and little is known about the direction of this relationship or whether it generalizes to responses immediately after a positive event. We conducted two studies to learn more about the directionality (Study 1) and generalizability (Study 2) of this relationship. In Study 1, athletes (N = 298) completed assessments of self-compassion and savoring capacity at two time-points throughout a season. We tested a cross-lagged panel model and found that self-compassion predicted increases in savoring, but savoring did not predict change in self-compassion. In Study 2, sports fans (N = 244) reported the extent to which they engaged in savoring immediately after their favorite team had won a championship game. The results showed that self-compassion was positively associated with savoring following the game. Overall, this research reveals more about the directionality and generalizability of the relationship between self-compassion and savoring, and shows that the effects of self-compassion extend to the positive side of the human experience.

Obsessive passion predicts many different types of maladaptive intra- and inter-personal outcomes (Vallerand, 2015). Our aim in this research was to explore one potential force that might promote or sustain obsessive passion in the workplace: lay beliefs about the relationship between obsessive passion and work success. We hypothesized that people hold the lay belief that obsessive passion is ideal for achieving success in workplaces that focus on singular objectives (e.g., productivity) at the expense of competing goals (e.g., well-being) – that is, those work environments characterized by bottom-line mentalities (e.g., Greenbaum, Mawritz, & Eissa, 2012). In three studies we assessed lay beliefs about passion from different perspectives, including perceptions of others (Study 1, n = 138), the way people presented themselves and believed others should present themselves (Study 2, n = 355), and estimates of one’s own success in different workplace environments (Study 3, n = 418). In support of our hypothesis, participants believed that, in workplaces characterized by bottom-line mentalities, they and others would be more likely to achieve success with high levels of obsessive passion. This means that lay beliefs about passion may be a force that promotes and sustains obsessive passion in workplaces focused exclusively on bottom line outcomes. This finding has implications for the decisions that are made by both employers and employees, and reveals a process that could contribute to the value that workplaces put on being obsessed toward the job.

People generally recognize the benefits of responding to failures with self-compassion (i.e., with self-kindness, a sense of common humanity, and mindfulness) rather than self-criticism. In this research, we replicated this effect with passionate students who had all reported that academics was a pursuit that they enjoyed and was important to them, and tested if it was influenced by levels of harmonious passion (a balanced and flexible engagement in academics), and obsessive passion (a rigid and uncontrollable desire to pursue academics). Passionate students (n = 241) reported how they would evaluate themselves (e.g., confident) and the anticipated outcomes that they expected to occur (e.g., goal achievement) if they were to respond to academic difficulties with either self-compassion or self-criticism. Results showed that many of the advantages that students believed self-compassion had over self-criticism, such as enhanced future performance and feelings of confidence and success, disappeared when academic passion involved high levels of obsessive passion and low levels of harmonious passion (i.e., pure obsessive passion). To promote self-compassion in academics, these findings suggest that the benefits of self-compassion need to be emphasized for students with pure obsessive passion.

People are often passionate toward multiple activities in their lives. However, more has been learned about passion toward any single activity than about passion toward multiple activities. Relying on the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand 2015), this research addressed the antecedents and consequences of polyamorous passion. In four pre-registered studies (total N = 1,322) and one mini meta-analysis, we found that (a) people tend to report being passionate for between 2 and 4 activities; (b) harmonious passion becomes a less potent predictor of well-being as it is directed toward less-favored activities; (c) harmonious passion does not contribute to the prediction of well-being beyond a second-favorite activity; and (d) openness to experience is a personality trait that is positively associated with the number of passionate activities that people have in their lives. These results contribute to our understanding of who has multiple passions, how many passionate activities people tend to have, and the relationship between polyamorous passion and well-being.

Self-compassion is defined as an orientation to care for oneself during challenging times. Most research has focused on self-compassion's benefit related to difficult life events. What is less clear is whether self-compassion influences how individuals respond to positive events. Savouring is a mindful process which involves maintaining, enhancing or prolonging good feelings and is linked to life satisfaction. Self-compassion should predict greater savouring because it facilitates mindfulness. We tested the relationship between self-compassion and savouring in sport in two studies. In Study 1, postsecondary student-athletes (N = 298) participated in a longitudinal study in which they completed assessments of both self-compassion and savouring tendencies at the start of the season (time 1) and 2 months later in the middle of the season (time 2). The results of a cross-lagged panel model showed that self-compassion at time 1 predicted increases in savouring at time 2, ? = .106, p = .009. Savouring at time 1, however, did not predict changes in self-compassion at time 2. In Study 2, fans of Chelsea F.C. (N = 244) completed online surveys the day after Chelsea F.C. had won the UEFA Champions League. Fans completed assessments of self-compassion, post-game positive emotions, and savouring responses to the victory. The results showed that self-compassion, while controlling for post-game emotions, predicted greater savouring, r = .225, p < .001. These two studies provide strong evidence that self-compassion not only serves as an adaptive resource for those facing difficulties, but also facilitates greater savouring of positive experiences in sport.

Self-compassionate individuals treat themselves kindly when undergoing stress. The present study examined self-compassion’s relationship to risky decision-making on a gambling task by 240 problem and non-problem gamblers who were tested in a casino setting. Multi-level modeling analyses showed that participants expressed differential rates of learning to avoid risks on the gambling task, depending on their status as potential problem/non-problem gamblers and their level of self-compassion. Among potential problem gamblers, participants higher in self-compassion showed significant gains in performance over decision-making trials, which approximated those of non-problem gamblers and adults without impairments in the population. In contrast, potential problem gamblers lower in self-compassion showed chance levels of performance, which approximated those of adults with impairments. In some circumstances, self-compassion can disinhibit individuals from taking greater risks. For potential problem gamblers in a casino setting, however, the benefits of self-compassion as a means to reinforce self-control appear to outweigh the risks.

The suspension of the 2019-2020 National Basketball Association (NBA) season due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that NBA fans were unable to engage in an activity that they loved in the midst of a global health crisis. In this research, we assessed if fan responses to the suspension were associated with different types of fan passion and motives. Shortly after the NBA season suspension, NBA fans (N = 395) completed online surveys assessing harmonious and obsessive passion for being an NBA fan, motives for watching games, and various attitudes and responses to the suspension. We found that both fan passion and motives predicted responses to the suspension, particularly obsessive passion which predicted greater levels of distress, coping responses, and negative attitudes toward the suspension. These findings have implications for both the passion and fan motives literatures.

This research tested if attitude change following counter-attitudinal advocacy (a) applies when people endorse positions that conflict with a passionate activity, and (b) depends on levels of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP; Vallerand, 2015). Undergraduates (N = 81) who were passionate about various sport/exercise activities were either asked (high-choice condition) or required (low-choice condition) to oppose the construction of a new recreational facility on campus. Participants in the high-choice condition reported lower levels of passion for their passionate activity and less support for the recreational facility compared to those in the low-choice condition. However, decreases in passion were only evident when passion involved high levels of OP and low levels of HP, whereas decreases in support for the recreational facility were only evident when passion involved high levels of both OP and HP. These results contribute to our understanding of how passion dimensions combine to predict self-protective responses.

Objective: Passion research has focused extensively on the unique effects of both harmonious passion and obsessive passion (Vallerand, 2015). We adopted a quadripartite approach (Gaudreau & Thompson, 2010) to test whether physical and psychological well-being are distinctly related to subtypes of passion with varying within-person passion combinations: pure harmonious passion, pure obsessive passion, mixed passion, and non-passion. Method: In four studies (total N = 3122), we tested if passion subtypes were differentially associated with self-reported general health (Study 1), health symptoms in video gamers (Study 2), global psychological well-being (Study 3), and academic burnout (Study 4) using latent moderated structural equation modeling. Results: Pure harmonious passion was generally associated with more positive levels of physical health and psychological well-being compared to pure obsessive passion, mixed passion, and non-passion. In contrast, outcomes were more negative for pure obsessive passion compared to both mixed passion and non-passion subtypes.Conclusions: This research underscores the theoretical and empirical usefulness of a quadripartite approach for the study of passion. Overall, the results demonstrate the benefits of having harmonious passion, even when obsessive passion is also high (i.e., mixed passion), and highlight the costs associated with a pure obsessive passion.

Objective: When facing setbacks and obstacles, the dualistic model of passion outlines that obsessive passion, and not harmonious passion, will predict greater levels of defensiveness (Vallerand, 2015). Our aim was to determine if these passion dimensions predicted defensiveness in the same way when confronted with threatening messages targeting the decision to pursue a passion.Method: Across four studies with passionate Facebook users, hockey fans, and runners (total N = 763), participants viewed messages giving reasons why their favorite activity should not be pursued. Participants either reported their desire to read the messages (Studies 1 and 2) or evaluated the messages after reading them (Studies 3 and 4).Results: Harmonious passion consistently predicted higher levels of avoidance or negative evaluations of the messages. These responses were attenuated for participants who had previously affirmed an important value (Study 1), or who were told that they do not control the passions they pursue (Study 4).Conclusions: Harmonious passion entails a sense of autonomy and control over activity engagement, which usually leads to non-defensive behavior. However, this sense of control may elicit more defensive responses from more harmoniously passionate individuals when the decision itself to pursue an activity is under attack.

People devote a substantial amount of time and energy toward the pursuit of their passions in life. But what happens when people learn new information arguing that they need to stop pursuing their passion altogether? Relying on the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand, 2015), we tested if evaluations of these types of passion-threatening messages depended on the extent to which a passion was harmonious, which entails a self-concordant relationship with an activity that is integrated with the rest of one's life, or obsessive, which emerges when an activity overwhelms the self and is pursued even at the expense of other life domains. We also tested if the relationship between passion dimensions and message evaluation was affected by one's sense of control over activity engagement. We recruited passionate runners (n = 349) to complete an experimental study in which they reported levels of harmonious and obsessive passion for running, were randomly assigned to either read or not read a message emphasizing that people do not have control over the passions they pursue, and then read and evaluated several novel arguments for why they should stop running. We found that harmonious passion, but not obsessive passion, predicted more negative evaluations of the arguments, and that this effect was significantly attenuated in the no activity-control condition. Although previous research has linked obsessive passion with defensive behaviour, these results identify a context in which harmonious passion predicts defensive responses, and highlight the role of activity choice in explaining this relationship. Acknowledgments: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Our aim was to study students' beliefs about passion and its influence on academic performance and experiences, and determine whether these beliefs depend on harmonious or obsessive passion. In Study 1, participants estimated passion scores for the most successful, average and least successful students in university. In Study 2, participants viewed completed questionnaires that depicted students as having varying levels of passion, and then predicted the students' performance and experiences in university. Across both studies, students expected that having passion for academics, regardless of predominant passion type, was related to substantially higher levels of performance compared to those who were not passionate. Participants also believed that students with strong levels of harmonious passion experienced more positive academic experiences than those without any harmonious passion. Although students likely overestimate the role that passion plays in determining academic performance, they distinguish between passion types when estimating one's academic experiences.

Background and Objectives: In this research, we testing the role of cognitive appraisals in explaining why harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions are related to distinct forms of coping, and explored if performance was impacted by these appraisal and coping processes.Design: Undergraduate students (N = 489) participated in a longitudinal study and completed three surveys throughout the course of an academic year.Methods: Participants completed assessments of both passion dimensions (Time 1), reported how they were appraising and coping with the mid-year exam period (Time 2), and provided consent to obtain their final grade in Introductory Psychology (Time 3). The hypothesised model was tested using structural equation modeling.Results: Harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions were linked with approach and avoidant coping responses, respectively. Cognitive appraisals, particularly appraisals of challenge and uncontrollability, played an indirect role in these relationships. In addition, both appraisals and coping responses had an indirect effect in the relationship between passion dimensions and final grade. Conclusions: These results identify cognitive appraisal as a reason why passion dimensions are linked with distinct coping tendencies, and demonstrate the role appraisal and coping processes in the journey toward passionate goal attainment.

When people fail at a passion in their lives, how do they respond? We conducted two studies with undergraduates to test whether self-compassionate responding and being fearful of engaging in self-compassion following failure depended on whether the passion was relatively harmonious or obsessive (Vallerand, 2015). In Study 1 (n=349), we found support for a model whereby fear of self-compassion was positively predicted by obsessive passion and negatively predicted by harmonious passion. Fear of self-compassion, in turn, predicted lower levels of self-compassion. We extended these findings in Study 2 (n=82) by testing the causal relationship between obsessive passion and fear of self-compassion using a mindset induction procedure. We found that participants in an obsessively passionate mindset reported greater levels of fear of self-compassion compared to those in a control condition. Self-compassion is known to produce adaptive responses to failure (Neff, 2009). The present findings suggest that people with a predominant obsessive passion are more likely to avoid treating themselves with kindness and compassion when faced with failure, a tendency that likely contributes to the known maladaptive outcomes that are characteristic of an obsessive passion in times of adversity.