SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | SEPTEMBER 2022 9
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By Linda Weiss, Resident
Be Kind:
It's Good
for You,
Science
Says So
The human heart is a wonderful tool – it tells us instantly when
we've been unkind.
That blush, the thud in the chest, the lurch of shame in the
stomach. The fact that our bodies respond so physically after we've
committed a (no doubt accidental) act of unkindness demonstrates
how the human natural condition prefers kindness to cruelty.
The helper's high. While it's not exactly a scientific term, the
helper's high has been identified as a physical rush of pleasure that
occurs after indulging in a kind act.
After studying a number of Japanese undergraduates, The Journal
of Happiness Studies, 2006, reported that not only did subjective
happiness increase after counting one's acts of kindness but also
that happier people became kinder and more grateful through the
act of counting their acts of kindness. It is cheering to learn that,
according to a 2010 study in The Journal of Social Psychology, those
who performed acts of kindness or acts of novelty experienced an
increase in life satisfaction. Participants were either assigned acts
of kindness or acts of novelty, or nothing to perform over a 10-day
period. Pity those poor participants who weren't assigned these acts,
for their satisfaction in life was not enhanced.
Looking at it from a purely selfish point of view, scientists
wondered whether being kind to strangers or close family members
had more or less effect on the happiness of the kind-giver. 'Happily,'
a 2019 study in the Journal of Social Psychology reported that being
kind to all people, regardless of whether they shared strong or weak
social ties, had equally positive effects on happiness.
Go, kind people!
"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of
creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
