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from the you-got-to-try-a-little-kindness dept.
People are touched by small kindnesses and led to greater generosity, new research shows:
Anyone who has given a friend a ride, baked cookies for a sick family member, or even bought a stranger a cup of coffee knows acts of kindness can enhance happiness.
But such random acts of kindness are still somewhat rare. Texas McCombs Assistant Professor of Marketing Amit Kumar set out to discover why people don't engage in prosocial acts — such as helping, sharing, or donating — more often.
In a new study, Kumar, along with Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, found that people often underestimate how good these actions make recipients feel. Givers tend to focus on the object they're providing or action they're performing, while receivers instead concentrate on the feelings of warmth the act of kindness has conjured up. Givers' "miscalibrated expectations" — that receivers are solely concerned with the gift itself — can function as a barrier to performing more prosocial behaviors.
[...] The researchers' findings offer practical implications and advice for people going about their everyday lives. When people realize their small actions have a large impact, they can choose to be nicer and carry out more acts of random kindness, enhancing both their well-being and that of others.
"Positive interpersonal contact is a powerful source of happiness," Kumar says. "It will make you feel better and someone else feel better, even better than you think they'll feel. A little good doesn't just go a long way — it goes an unexpectedly long way."
See also: Friends Enjoy Being Reached Out to More Than We Think
Journal Reference:
Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2022). A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 10.1037/xge0001271
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Monday August 22 2022, @07:44PM (6 children)
Many cultures teach their children to behave like this, but western ones mainly taught to follow rules. That's the result of greatly overvaluing law I believe.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2022, @08:29PM (4 children)
???
> greatly overvaluing law
Explain your position please. Would you have us undervalue law (be scofflaws?).
My grand father (b.1910) learned to drive on dirt roads, no lines on the road, very little traffic. For the rest of his life, he barely paid any attention to the lines on the roads--unnerving for passengers, at best!
Or be like much of rural China where my understanding is that the law is still primarily the local strong/rich guy who runs the show for his own benefit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Tuesday August 23 2022, @01:09AM (1 child)
I believe the it point is probably the old adage that obeying the law is the MINIMUM you need to do to participate productively in society. I.e. it's just the starting point. If that's *all* you do, perhaps because you greatly overvalue it, then you're not a good person.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by legont on Tuesday August 23 2022, @01:38AM
Yes, exactly. Note that once population believes it can do anything and everything that does not violates the law, the law has to go deeper and regulate things that normally do not need regulations such as kindness to strangers. At this point bad things start to happen.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Lester on Wednesday August 24 2022, @12:14PM (1 child)
I think that the point is that we are teaching legal=moral, so as long as you don't break laws, nothing to regret of, nothing to give an explanation of, nothing to be held accountable.
Bad manners are not punished by law, so we can be as rude as we want. Being selfishness can't be punished by law, so we can be as selfish as we want. We are creating a civilization of assholes.
Things like bad manners may be punished, not by laws but by social punishment. But we make heroes of winners, no matter their moral behavior, they were smart enough to find legal loopholes and win. Hail!
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday August 24 2022, @07:34PM
Yes many laws are arguably immoral and many important morals are not enshrined in law. And yes, it's a big part of why both civilization and the rest of the planet are becoming really, really messed up!
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2022, @09:45PM
The good thing about "law" is that you can trust that things get done properly (for the most part). In a corrupt system, your shit goes missing and the cops don't care and in the meantime your crappy car broke down and somebody's ripped off your work and got a promotion. And nobody cares because they've got their own problems. And so what if a few votes got missing, it doesn't make any difference anyway.
So yeah, let's not go back to that.