The findings indicated that expecting to improve one's mood by means other than helping, or expecting not to be able to share a needy person's joy following the provision of help, reduced compassion and willingness to help in the neutral priming condition, but not in the security priming condition. Instead, security priming led to greater compassion and willingness to help even when there was no egoistic reason for helping (i.e., no empathic joy or no mood relief).