When we help others, we actually help ourselves. Showing kindness fills our lives with happiness, improves our well-being and can even lengthen the time we have on Earth. Many researchers have been looking into the “helper’s high” and the effects it has on our physical and emotional health.
In one study, Dr. Stephen G. Post, a researcher, opinion leader, and best-selling author, wrote that “evidence for the benefits of giving is now extremely powerful, and suggests that healthcare professionals might wish to recommend such activities to patients.”
For more than 20 years, he has been promoting the idea of “give and live better” and studying altruism, generosity and kindness. Acting in good conscience appears to be an important factor for us to lead meaningful and satisfying lives because when we engage in kind acts, we reduce our own stress. Altruistic emotions—the “helper’s high”—seem to gain dominance over the stress response, Post told WebMD.
“Studies of telomeres—the end-caps of our genes—show that long-term stress can shorten those end-caps, and shortened end-caps are linked with early death,” he explained.
“These studies indicate that we’re dealing with something that’s extremely powerful. Ultimately, the process of cultivating a positive emotional state through pro-social behaviors—being generous—may lengthen your life.”
The need to do good comes from a simple fact that we humans are a social species. Our ability to be altruistic derived from the bonds we create with others: since people benefit from social support they receive, it’s no surprise that evolution would provide us with the capacity to give social support.
“Humans have evolved to be caring and helpful to those around us, largely to ensure our survival,” Post said. “In Darwin’s Descent of Man, he mentions survival of the fittest only twice. He mentions benevolence 99 times.”
When you see your friends and family assisting and helping out their loved ones or sometimes even complete strangers, you can’t help but feel the urge to do good too. According to research, simply watching someone else do the honorable thing inspires us as well.
There’s a study showing that when we witness kindness, we experience an uplifting feeling and become encouraged to act more altruistic ourselves. Psychological scientists Simone Schnall, Jean Roper and Daniel M.T. Fessler performed two experiments trying to find out whether feelings of elevation, evoked by observing another person perform a good deed, motivate us to help others.
In the first experiment, 59 participants were recruited and asked to watch two short videos. One group looked at a clip from The Oprah Winfrey Show while the other watched a neutral nature documentary. After the viewing, they received a receipt asking if they would be willing to take part in an additional, unpaid, study.
The results showed that people who experienced “elevation were more likely to volunteer for a subsequent unpaid study than were participants in a neutral state.”
36 students participated in the second experiment where they not only looked at a short clip but were also asked to do a 30-minute task. However, the experimenter “couldn’t” open the needed file and told the students that they were free to leave. When people got up, she asked whether they would be willing to complete another, unrelated task.
She “noted that the questionnaire was, unfortunately, rather boring, emphasizing that the participant was under no obligation” and could stop whenever they wanted, but that completing any number of the items would greatly assist the experimenter. People in the elevation condition spent roughly twice as much time on the questionnaire as participants in the other groups.
Both experiments provided convincing evidence that elevation, awakened by learning of another person’s good deeds, leads to selfless behavior. A kind gesture, no matter how small, creates something positive in this world. Looking at wholesome stories people share not only gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling inside but inspires us to be better as well.
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