This article reviews the functions and negative consequences of two emotions that support reciprocal help in humans: compassion and gratitude. Compassion arises when an individual witnesses another individual’s suffering and can be distinguished from the experience-sharing of distress with that person. This emotion has a significant role in the caregiving response to vulnerable offspring and cooperative relations with non-kin. However, compassion may sacrifice the welfare of people who are not the target of this emotion or may hinder the target’s growth. Gratitude is generated when one benefits from someone else’s good intentions, and can be distinguished from a mere positive emotion or indebtedness. This emotion contributes to increasing the morality of the beneficiary and the benefactor and contributes to a high-quality relationship between them. However, gratitude may cause unnecessary harm to the beneficiary’s welfare. In an intimate relationship, unbalanced gratitude may decrease relationship satisfaction. Social emotions largely support reciprocal help in humans; however, these emotions evidently are not the sole requirement.
