Suzanne, from Northern Illinois University, explained to Bored Panda that there are several reasons why we are kind to other people. "Many of us are raised to believe it is the 'right thing to do.' Basically, all spiritual belief systems have a version of the 'Golden Rule, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,'" she said, and most of you reading this will probably agree that you've heard of the Golden Rule in some shape or form before.
"We also do good turns because we know that one day we may be in need of a little 'generosity from the universe,' so it's like putting 'money' into a karma account," she said. However, there's a biological basis for altruism as well.
"Lastly, humans are wired so that when we do something kind for another, we feel good about ourselves and neurotransmitters like endorphins and oxytocin have been shown to get a boost when we do something good for another. It is through cooperation that society functions, so the survival of the human race depends on being willing to help others. Family values, spiritual beliefs, and biology all play a part in this motivation," Suzanne stressed that there are complex reasons why someone might do nice things.
"Many of us take pride in being of service to others as it is culturally valued and we want to hold significance in our worlds. So when we do good deeds, we show others our willingness to help those in distress/need; we live out faith-based encouragement to treat others the way we would like to be treated, we uphold family values, and our brains get a positive jolt of happiness when we help others," Suzanne told Bored Panda.
Founded all the way back in 2013, when life seemed a lot simpler than it does nowadays, the ‘Humans Being Bros’ subreddit has since then grown by leaps and bounds. And it doesn’t look like it plans on slowing down any time soon (unless someone happens to unplug the internet).
Unsurprisingly, the community is entirely focused on folks being excellent to each other and posting high-quality, genuine content. The moderators stress that there’s to be no hate speech and no “slap fights. Meanwhile, there’s also zero tolerance for politics, misinformation, and staged submissions. Oh, and if you’re here for memes, you won’t find any—there are other subreddits for that.
The instinct for being kind to others is hard-wired into us, psychotherapist Silva Neves explained to Bored Panda earlier. He told us that our brains reward us for being social and altruistic. At the same time, however, we also have a selfish side that’s focused on survival and hoarding resources.
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Our desire to help others is in constant conflict with our inner wish to act in such a way as to protect ourselves. In short, people are constantly struggling between two different lines of action they’d like to pursue. We’re always on the lookout for how our kindness might backfire on us, according to Silva. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t wonderful benefits that come with being nice to others.
“Being kind is good for us because it gives us a sense of purpose, it raises our self-esteem, and it releases feel-good brain chemicals,” the psychotherapist told us. “It [kindness] is also good for others, obviously. So kindness is actually something that we, humans, are naturally driven to be.”
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However, he also warned that people are generally wary of strangers. “The sense of kindness is in competition with our survival mode, so, as human beings, we tend to live in contradiction, between kindness (opening our arms) and protection (closing our arms),” he said.
Meanwhile, Vanessa King, the Head of Psychology at 'Action for Happiness,' revealed to Bored Panda that altruism is directly linked to the satisfaction and happiness we feel in our own lives.
"If you think about it human beings are social species, we evolved to live in groups so working together and doing things to help each other is the social glue that keeps us together,” she told us.
"Participating in group activities and community events makes us happier too. When we do things for others it activates the reward center in the brain, so when we give a gift it feels the same as receiving a gift," she said.
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