Many religions agree that performing acts of kindness is good for one’s spiritual well-being. What's more, researchers have postulated that such behavior may also help improve one’s overall happiness.
Last year, a social scientist named Meena Andiappan and her colleagues decided to study how people could improve their sense of well-being and deal with anxiety, which became fairly common amid the global COVID pandemic.
Andiappan, an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Toronto who studies “the intersection of ethical behavior and well-being,” has explained in an article published on The Conversation that her team sought to “further investigate the best way to increase one’s happiness and mental health.”
In order to achieve that goal, the team compared people who spend their resources (be it money or time) “on their own happiness” with people who opt to treat others instead, performing acts of kindness that range from opening a door for someone to donating goods to charities.
“What we found was surprising: for people who didn’t consistently enact behavior outside of their normal routine, kind acts had no effect on their well-being,” Andiappan wrote. “However, for those who fully engaged in the study by consistently enacting behavior outside of their normal routine, acts of kindness had bigger boosts to their well-being and mental health compared to those who treated themselves.”
She noted that for those who “fully engaged in their kind acts,” said acts became associated with “reductions in both anxiety and depression.”
At the same time, the team also observed that repeatedly performing a particular act of kindness does not seem to be as beneficial as varying one’s routine in that regard.
Therefore, Andiappan and her colleagues suggested that “changing the kind acts that you do is important,” and that receiving positive feedback seems to boost one’s happiness about the act of kindness performed.
The team currently conducts a follow-up study in a bid to figure out whether “all of the kind acts people may engage in are equal predictors of happiness,” or if certain acts of kindness may be “more helpful in increasing positive feelings.”