Dr. Julie Exline is an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work focuses primarily on the psychology of religion and virtue, including topics such as forgiveness, humility, and altruistic love. To date, many of her projects have focused on problems in people‚s perceived relationships with God. She has studied situations in which people have negative feelings toward God or believe that God has negative feelings toward the self. Her research aims to understand how such situations arise, what the consequences are, and how the conflicts are resolved. Currently, Dr. Exline is starting to work toward the development of intervention studies to help people cope with spiritual struggles, using techniques such as journaling, letter writing, and imagery.

SG = Soul Graffiti
JE = Dr. Julie Exline

SG: WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RESEARCH KINDNESS?

JE: I already had a line of research on forgiveness, and I started to think about forgiveness as being simply a manifestation or "face" of love. So in studying how people forgive one another, this led me to more general questions about how they show love and kindness to one another.

SG: WHAT MOTIVATES A PERSON TO BE KIND?

JE: We don't have all of the answers yet, but here are a few things that help:

• role models of people helping one another
  
• religious/spiritual beliefs that encourage kindness toward others
  
• being in a good mood
  
• seeing someone in need; calling to mind the needs of others;
  
• feeling empathy--an emotional bond of caring with the person who is in need;
  
• having enough positive relationships in your life to help you feel secure and loved, as though you have "something to give".

SG: WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS HARDER FOR PEOPLE TO BE KIND TO STRANGERS THAN TO LOVED ONES?

JE: Research by Art Aron and others suggests that people often view close others as "extensions of the self". As such, we may take on some responsibility for meeting close others' needs. Also, close others are much more likely to be able to return kindness to us when compared with strangers. For both of these reasons, when we help loved ones, we may indirectly be helping ourselves. It's also much more natural to feel a bond of caring with close others, which makes it easier to help them. With strangers, it may be more of a stretch to empathize with their need; and it may be clear that there will be no direct payoff to us--other than feeling good about helping, of course.

SG: HOW CAN PEOPLE INCREASE THEIR CAPACITY FOR KINDNESS?

JE: We aren't clear on this yet, but here are some preliminary ideas based on research findings:

• Remind yourself often of others who love you unconditionally (e.g., parents; romantic partner; God); picture their love "flowing into you".
  
• Picture yourself as a conduit, a vessel that not only stores up love but also pours it out to other people.
  
• Focus on the positive. People are much more likely to give and help others when they are in good moods.
  
• Remind yourself that helping often INCREASES a person's good mood, energy, etc. Helping will make you feel better.
  
• Focus on spiritual, religious, or personal principles about the need for love and the power of love.

SG: DO YOU BELIEVE THAT KINDNESS IS AN INNATE OR LEARNED BEHAVIOR?

JE: I believe that it is primarily learned, though other researchers are looking into innate/biological aspects. There is certainly plenty of evidence from animal studies to suggest that animals care for one another--but usually this care is focused primarily on others in one's family group. Empathy is a big part of helping, and this is a behavior that only develops over time. Reaching out to strangers and enemies is definitely not "natural"!

SG: WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE WILL TAKE AWAY FROM YOU RESEARCH AND WHAT RESEARCH DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE?

JE: My research on this topic is just getting started, but I hope that people will take home an image of themselves as conduits of love. That is, they will benefit from reflecting on the love that they have received AND from pouring out this love to others.

In the future, we are going to try interventions in which we directly express encouragement or kindness to people as part of the study, rather than simply having them reflect on acts of kindness that they have experienced in the past.