The Power of Kindness

Research has shown that the more kind acts we do for others, the happier we are. That’s right. It boosts well-being and happiness and has clear pro-social benefits. It doesn’t matter if you’re kind to your best friend or a total stranger. Kindness makes us feel good, and our number of kind acts correlates to how happy we are.

Research makes an even more convincing case for kindness. In a group of experiments in which participants performed small acts of kindness like giving out cupcakes or hot chocolate, participants underestimated the impact of their kind acts. In simple terms, the kind things we do for others have far greater ripple effects in their lives than we think.

Here’s the thing. Being kind feels good and has powerful effects on the people we’re kind to. If we spend more time thinking about these ripple effects of our small acts of kindness, we may be more likely to choose kindness more often. Sure, being kind feels good, but if we spend more mental energy thinking about how our kindness impacts others, we may likely lean into kind behaviors.