Page 22 - HOH_Neat

a30 feature
Friday 3 July 2020
Not so random acts: Science finds that being kind pays off

By SETH BORENSTEIN being kind, scientists said.
AP Science Writer "Doing kindness makes you
Acts of kindness may not happier and being happier
be that random after all. makes you do kind acts,"
Science says being kind said labor economist Rich-
pays off. ard Layard, who studies
Research shows that acts happiness at the London
of kindness make us feel School of Economics and
better and healthier. Kind- wrote the new book "Can
ness is also key to how we We Be Happier?"
evolved and survived as a University of California Riv-
species, scientists say. We erside psychology profes-
are hard-wired to be kind. sor Sonja Lyubomirsky has
Kindness "is as bred in our put that concept to the test
bones as our anger or our in numerous experiments
lust or our grief or as our de- over 20 years and repeat-
sire for revenge," said Uni- edly found that people
versity of California San Di- feel better when they are
ego psychologist Michael kind to others, even more
McCullough, author of the than when they are kind to
forthcoming book "Kind- themselves.
ness of Strangers." It's also, "Acts of kindness are very
he said, "the main feature powerful," Lyubomirsky
we take for granted." In this Wednesday, May 27, 2020 file photo, medical worker Kenza, center and Nassima, left, said.
Scientific research is boom- attend a training session with boxer Hassan N'Dam at the Villeneuve-Saint-Georges hospital, In one experiment, she
outside Paris.
ing into human kindness Associated Press asked subjects to do an
and what scientists have extra three acts of kind-
found so far speaks well of successful you are, Hare ness for other people a
us. said. week and asked a different
"Kindness is much older For example, Hare, who group to do three acts of
than religion. It does seem studies bonobos and other self-kindness. They could be
to be universal," said Uni- primates, compares ag- small, like opening a door
versity of Oxford anthropol- gressive chimpanzees, for someone, or big. But
ogist Oliver Curry, research which attack outsiders, to the people who were kind
director at Kindlab. "The bonobos where the ani- to others became happier
basic reason why people mals don't kill but help out and felt more connected
are kind is that we are so- strangers. Male bonobos to the world.
cial animals." are far more successful The same occurred with
We prize kindness over any at mating than their male money, using it to help oth-
other value. When psychol- chimp counterparts, Hare ers versus helping yourself.
ogists lumped values into said. Lyubomirsky said she thinks
ten categories and asked McCullough sees bonobos it is because people spend
people what was more as more the exceptions. too much time thinking and
important, benevolence Most animals aren't kind worrying about themselves
or kindness, comes out on or helpful to strangers, just and when they think of oth-
top, beating hedonism, close relatives so in that ers while doing acts of kind-
having an exciting life, cre- way it is one of the traits ness, it redirects them away
ativity, ambition, tradition, that separate us from other In this Friday, April 24, 2020 file photo, Dennis Ruhnke holds two from their own problems.
security, obedience, seek- species, he said. And that, of his remaining N-95 masks as he stands with his wife, Sharon at Oxford's Curry analyzed
their home near Troy, Kan.
ing social justice and seek- he said, is because of the Associated Press peer-reviewed research
ing power, said University of human ability to reason. like Lyubomirsky's and
London psychologist Anat Humans realize that there's studies point to certain ar- places. The same bear be- found at least 27 studies
Bardi, who studies value not much difference be- eas of the brain, the medial comes its most aggressive showing the same thing:
systems. tween our close relatives prefrontal cortex, temporal and dangerous. Being kind makes people
"We're kind because under and strangers and that parietal junction and other Hare said he sees this in hu- feel better emotionally.
the right circumstances we someday strangers can spots as either activated or mans. Some of the same But it's not just emotional.
all benefit from kindness," help us if we are kind to dampened by emotional people who are generous It's physical.
Oxford's Curry said. them, McCullough said. activity. The same places to family and close friends, Lyubomirsky said a study of
When it comes to a spe- Reasoning "is the secret in- give us the ability to nur- when they feel threatened people with multiple sclero-
cies' survival "kindness pays, gredient, which is why we ture and love, but also de- by outsiders become angri- sis and found they felt bet-
friendliness pays," said Duke donate blood when there humanize and exclude, he er. He points to the current ter physically when helping
University evolutionary an- are disasters" and why most said. polarization of the world. others. She also found that
thropologist Brian Hare, au- industrialized nations spend When mother bears are "More isolated groups in people doing more acts
thor of the new book "Sur- at least 20% of their money feeding and nurturing their are more likely to be feel of kindness that the genes
vival of the Friendliest." on social programs, such cubs, these areas in the threatened by others and that trigger inflammation
Kindness and coopera- as housing and education, brain are activated and it they are more likely to mor- were turned down more
tion work for many species, McCullough said. allows them to be generous ally exclude, dehumanize," than in people who don't.
whether it's bacteria, flow- Duke's Hare also points to and loving, Hare said. But if Hare said. "And that opens And she said in upcoming
ers or our fellow primate mama bears to understand someone comes near the the door to cruelty." studies, she's found more
bonobos. The more friends the evolution and biology mother bear at that time, But overall our bodies antiviral genes in people
you have, the more indi- of kindness and its aggres- it sets of the brain's threat aren't just programmed to who performed acts of
viduals you help, the more sive nasty flip side. He said mechanisms in the same be nice, they reward us for kindness.q