By Judith Fales

One of my favorite bumper stickers is “Practice Acts of Random Kindness.” I know that when I do something to help others, it makes me feel better about myself, and when others are kind to me, it gives me hope for a better world. But, until I watched a public health program which discussed whether being kind might help us live longer, I did not realize that there are mental and physical benefits associated with kindness and pro-social behaviors. I was surprised to learn that helping others and maintaining a sense of optimism and gratitude can result in numerous mental and physical health benefits.

Pro-social behaviors include a very broad spectrum of activities, and can include donating money or time to organizations, helping others with daily chores, donating organs, helping a person carrying a heavy item at the airport, opening a door for someone, or taking someone out to cheer them up after a hard day.

Researchers who performed tests on participants who performed acts of kindness learned some important facts.

  1. Giving money has fewer health benefits than volunteering your time.
  2. If you give older adults money to spend on themselves or others, they experience greater health benefits if they spend their money on helping others.
  3. Helping people increases a person’s positive thinking, mood, and well-being.
  4. Acts of kindness improve cognitive health, heart disease, longevity, pain, and stress.
  5. Volunteering helps increase life satisfaction, reduce depression, enhance social connectiveness, and minimize feeling isolated.
  6. Practicing gratitude helps reduce cravings to smoke.

The researchers also noted some public health benefits from acts of kindness, including the fact that promoting pro-social behaviors could have helped to reduce mental health issues caused by loneliness during COVID. Also, individuals who made decisions to help benefit others during the pandemic years were more likely to get vaccines and wear masks.

Finally, people derive greater mental and physical benefits if they believe in what they are doing, rather than if they instructed to be kind because it is the right thing to do. Ways to further encourage this behavior is for employers and schools to give time off for volunteering, and for parents to set good examples regarding charitable giving and engaging their children in volunteer activities.

The Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health program featured Patrick Skerrett, founder of First Opinion STAT, a biotech, medical, and life science newsletter as moderator. Researchers and participants were Professor Laura Kubzansky, Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Society and Health Laboratory at the Chan School, and Professor Ashley Whillans, Harvard Business School.

Judith Fales is a writer and editor for Buffalo Healthy Living.