35 How Small Acts of Kindness Can Make You Happier and Healthier
Learning Outcomes
- Apply the reading process to “How Small Acts of Kindness Can Make You Happier and Healthier.”
- Summarize the article.
- Respond to the article.
- Connect the ideas in the article to your personal experience.
Preview the Article
Follow the steps below to preview the article “How Small Acts of Kindness Can Make You Happier and Healthier.” Ideally, you should print the article and write your responses in the margins of the printed copy. To read more about previewing, visit the chapter on previewing a reading.
- Read the title. What does it make you think about? What do you think the article is about? What questions do you have? Record your predictions and questions on the printed copy of the article next to the title.
- In what ways do you show kindness to others? How do you feel when you show kindness to others? Record your thoughts on the printed copy of the article.
- Read the first two or three paragraphs. What additional predictions do you now have about the article? What additional questions do you have? Record them on the printed copy of the article.
- Scan the article and notice the headings (e.g. Committing to kindness). What additional thoughts or questions do these raise? Record them on the printed copy of the article.
- Scan the bolded and underlined vocabulary in the article. If there are any words that you do not know well, look them up in a print or online dictionary and write some notes about their meanings on the printed copy of the article. Keep in mind that some words have multiple meanings. For example, the word tackle is used in paragraph 1; however, it does not refer to knocking someone to the ground as might happen in football. You may need to read the sentence containing the word to understand the word’s usage.
- Based on your preview of the article, what do you think is the central point of the article? (Don’t worry if you are not sure. This is a prediction or guess – you do not have to be correct as long as you are engaging your brain.) Record your prediction on the printed copy of the article.
- Based on your preview, do you predict that the article is narrative, expository, or argumentative?
Read Interactively
Now, read the article using the guidelines from the chapter on reading interactively. As you read, follow these steps to engage with the text.
- Pause to confirm or revise your predictions and to answer the questions you posed while previewing the article. Write down those revised predictions and responses to the questions as you read. If you cannot find the answers to your questions, save them for further research and discussion.
- Pause at other points to check for understanding of what you just read. Can you explain key ideas in your own words yet? If not, reread to clarify. Ideas that come later in a text build on the previous ones. Therefore, it makes no sense to keep reading if you did not understand something or if you became distracted. Anyone can become distracted while reading, so don’t hesitate to use the strategy of rereading when necessary.
- Pay attention to any vocabulary words that are confusing. Look up the words in a dictionary if they are interfering with your understanding, or mark them to return to later.
- Record any opinions or reactions you have to the reading in the margins of the article.
- Write down any further questions that develop as you read.
How small acts of kindness can make you happier and healthier
Meena Andiappan, University of Toronto
October 3, 2022
1 How to optimize the pursuit of well-being and happiness is a question researchers have tried to tackle from a range of angles. The social effects of the pandemic led many people to focus more closely on their mental health and buffer against threats to well-being — in short, to pursue happiness.
2 As a social scientist, I study the intersection of ethical behaviour and well-being. Last year, my colleagues and I decided to explore ways that people could increase their sense of well-being and decrease the increasingly common feelings of anxiety and depression that arose during the pandemic.
3 Given the recent popular movement towards ideals of self-care and focusing inward, we wanted to further investigate the best way to increase one’s happiness and mental health.
4 We compared people who chose to treat themselves by spending money, or time, or some form of resources on their own happiness (anything from painting their nails, to watching their favourite movie), versus those who treated others (again, anything from opening the door for someone at the grocery store, to donating goods to charity). In both cases, people largely did simple, low- to no-cost acts on a daily basis.
Committing to kindness
5 What we found was surprising: for people who didn’t consistently enact behaviours outside of their normal routine, kind acts had no effect on their well-being. However, for those who fully engaged in the study by consistently enacting behaviours outside of their normal routine, acts of kindness had bigger boosts to their well-being and mental health compared to those who treated themselves.
6 Not only that, but for those who fully engaged in their kind acts, those acts were associated with reductions in both anxiety and depression.
7 Our study joins a long line of research findings that concur. Why does research find these effects? Some have found that spending our energy on other people (particularly those less fortunate) makes our own troubles seem less pressing.
8 Others have noted that treating others often means spending time with them, building and reinforcing relationships — and we know that strong social relationships are one key to happiness. Relatedly, when other people are present, we tend to smile much more — essentially experiencing positive emotions more frequently.
9 Research has also suggested that leading a meaningful life is a significant predictor of feeling good. It is likely that spending your limited resources and energies on other people can help boost this sense of meaning, making life more fulfilling and worthy of living. In contrast, spending — whether time, money or effort — on yourself doesn’t seem to have the same benefits.
Predictors of happiness
10 We are now conducting a followup study, trying to better understand if all of the kind acts people may engage in are equal predictors of happiness, or whether there are particular characteristics of certain acts that may make them more helpful in increasing positive feelings.
11 Interestingly, we have found that as long as you don’t do the same act over and over (for example, baking cookies for your neighbour every day), you are sure to gain benefit from your kindness.
12 However, there were three factors that make certain acts particularly beneficial to happiness.
- First, doing something outside of your normal routine — for example, driving your neighbour to his doctor’s appointment — affects your happiness more than routine acts, such as helping your spouse with the dishes.
- Second, changing the kind acts that you do is important. For example, one day you might help a co-worker finish their tasks, while another day you might choose to spend time helping your niece learn to play soccer. So, variety is key.
- Third, happiness is boosted when you receive positive feedback about the kind act that you did. Knowing how you have helped someone or receiving gratitude and appreciation for your act amplifies your positive feelings.
13 Trying to increase your happiness and mental health doesn’t have to be hard, time-consuming or expensive. In fact, it can be done in the span of 60 seconds without much effort or money at all — just consider holding open a door for a stranger or giving your colleague a compliment.
14 Although engaging in kind acts isn’t a universal remedy for emotional needs, these little acts of kindness can all add up to the old adage: in helping others, you really can help yourself.
Meena Andiappan, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, University of Toronto
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Reflect
After reading the article, use the following questions to reflect on the content of the article and your reading process. See the chapter about reflecting for a discussion of why this is a crucial step.
- Try to paraphrase the main idea in a sentence. This may be challenging because you have read the article only once. If you are struggling, do your best. You can refine this when you reread and summarize the article.
- Is the article primarily narrative, expository, or argumentative? What is the purpose of the article? In other words, why do you think the author wrote it?
- Which predictions were accurate, and which did you have to revise?
- As you previewed the article, you wrote questions. What questions remain unanswered after reading the article?
- What else do you want to know about the article or topic of the reading? Write down any additional questions.
- How did previewing the article help you to understand and engage with the text while reading?
- Where did you struggle to understand something in the text, and how did you work through it?
- What, if anything, could you have done differently to improve your reading process?
Summarize
Complete a summary of the article by following these steps. Make sure you have read the chapters about Reading to Summarize before proceeding with the summary.
- Reread the article and complete the Summary Notes. See Preparing to Summarize for a review of this topic and an example.
- Then, use your Summary Notes to write a one-paragraph summary of the article. See Writing a Summary for a review of this topic and an example. Make sure that you include in-text citations and the Work Cited.
- Use the self-assessment/peer review questions from Evaluating a Summary to self-assess your summary or invite a peer to provide feedback.
- Use the self-assessment or peer feedback to make changes to your summary.
Make sure you are comfortable with your summary before advancing to the response. If you misunderstand something in the article, then your response may be skewed based on that misunderstanding.
Respond
Write a response to the article by following these steps. Make sure you have read the chapters about Reading to Respond before proceeding with the summary.
- Use the Response Questions from Preparing to Respond to brainstorm possible ideas for your response. See the example in that same chapter.
- Read over your replies to the Response Questions. Choose one idea to write about in your response. Express that idea in a topic sentence. See Writing a Topic Sentence for a Response for examples. Ask a peer for feedback on your topic sentence.
- Brainstorm about possible support you could use in your response. See Generating Support for a Response for examples.
- Use your topic sentence and ideas from the list of support to write a one-paragraph response. See Writing a Response writing guidelines and examples. Make sure that you include the Work Cited and in-text citations for any quotes or specific ideas from the article.
- Use the self-assessment/peer review questions from Evaluating a Response to evaluate your response or have a peer provide feedback.
- Use the self-assessment or peer feedback to make improvements to your response.
Extend: Connect and Reflect
In the article, Meena Andiappan notes several examples of the ways in which people practice kindness in their daily lives. Choose a way to show kindness to others in your daily life. It can be simple and require little time, such as holding the door for other people.
Keep a log of the ways you practice kindness and how those actions impact your mental and emotional health. Share what you learned with your peers.