Words of Positivity
Browse the A to Z index4,633 ENTRIES

Other-regarding

adj.kind, thoughtfulformal

What it means

Concerned with the welfare and needs of other people.

Reach for it when describing choices attentive to other people's welfare and interests

Her other-regarding leadership protected both workers and nearby residents.

Choose between these

6
  • everyday

    selfless

    personal gain is set aside

    not when Selfless can glorify unhealthy self-erasure.

  • warm

    compassionate

    response to another's suffering matters

    not when Compassion is narrower than general regard.

  • warm

    considerate

    everyday attention to others' needs is central

    not when Consideration can be local and interpersonal.

  • professional

    altruistic

    another's welfare motivates action

    not when Altruism can imply self-sacrifice.

  • professional

    prosocial

    behavior benefits other people or society

    not when Prosocial is technical and describes effect more than motive.

  • formal

    public-spirited

    concern for community welfare leads

    not when Public spirit is collective rather than person-specific.

Said against

3
  • self-regarding
  • selfish
  • exploitative

It naturally appears in

3
  • other-regarding behavior

    Other-regarding behavior guided the neighbors' water-sharing plan.

  • other-regarding values

    Her other-regarding values shaped both wages and waste policy.

  • genuinely other-regarding

    The decision was genuinely other-regarding because affected residents shared control.

Where this comes from

Other-regarding is a specialized ethical term; it should not imply that healthy self-regard and boundaries are wrong.

Other-regarding is not a headword in the dictionaries below. The sense was checked against their entries for other and regard, and the definition and example here are written for Other-regarding itself.

The definition and the example on this page are written here. The dictionaries above ground which meaning is being described, not the wording.