People are happier when they do good
If you ever needed an incentive to be kinder to others, here’s a good reason: it will make you happier.
There’s growing body of evidence that finds doing good for others can boost your own happiness, even more than doing good for ourselves. In one 2010 study, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, researchers measured the life satisfaction of 86 participants. They then assigned participants to one of three groups: one group was instructed to perform a daily act of kindness for the next 10 days, the second group was to perform new and novel activities for 10 days and the third group received no instructions. As expected, the group who practised kindness and engaged in new experiences had a significant increase in happiness. The findings show that performing good deeds do indeed make people feel better, even when performed for as little as 10 days.
In another study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2011 researchers asked half of the 51 participants to remember the last time they spent money on themselves and the other half to recall when they spent money on someone else. All participants also completed a happiness survey. Researchers then gave participants a small amount of money and two choices: spend money on themselves or on someone else. The participants were told to choose the option that would make them happiest, adding that their choice would remain anonymous in case anyone felt pressured to make a particular choice. Like the previous study, people felt happier when they were asked to remember a time they bought a gift for someone else over a time when they bought something for themselves.
The researchers also found that the more you do to make others feel better, the more your own happiness increases – a “positive feedback loop” between kindness and happiness. The results showed that the happier participants felt about their past generosity, the more likely they were in the present to choose to spend on someone else instead of themselves.
“The practical implications of this positive feedback loop could be that engaging in one kind deed (e.g. taking your mum to lunch) would make you happier, and the happier you feel, the more likely you are to do another kind act,” says Lara Aknin, a graduate student in psychology at the University of British Columbia and the study’s lead author.
So it seems the key to happiness is clear: be kinder to others.