Social Love, Self-Transcendence, Openness to Change

Social love is a practical, overabounding action that people realise when they care for others (Iorio and Cataldi 2023). The other can be a human agent (fragile people, immigrants, the poor, and the homeless), or the other can be a non-human agent (such as the animal and plant kingdom and the entire planet Earth). Social love takes shape in people’s daily lives, such as volunteering time, giving food and dresses to people in condition of need, donating money to charity organisations, and joining peaceful protests to protect the environment and the life in the heart. What distinguishes social love from similar concepts is that it is a universalistic behaviour that breaks the in-group mechanisms because the recipient is the other (human and non-human) who stands out of the group. Universalism is a pillar dimension of social love (Iorio et al. 2022). This paper empirically explores the relationship between universalism and the conative dimension of social love, starting from the answers given by 1,170 interviewees to the questionnaire on social love administered in Italy in 2023. A social love index is created to position the respondents from the minimum to the maximum propensity level for social love. Statistical multivariate analysis shows that the index of social love correlates with the general concepts of self-transcendence, which emphasises the concern for the welfare and need of others, especially the unknown others, which recalls the value of universalism made of understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the all people and nature. At the same time, social love positively correlates with openness to change (self-direction independent thought/action and desire for novelty and creativity), and it negatively correlates with self-achievement values (pursuing one's interests, personal success and dominance over others).