Volunteering and other kind acts help the helper, too

It’s easy to find headlines about how lonely, isolated, and polarized people have become. But research suggests a powerful antidote to this trend: engaging in prosocial behavior, whether volunteering at an animal shelter or performing acts of kindness like donating blood, giving to charities, or even smiling at a stranger on the street.

These studies find that generous behavior boasts a range of rewards, including better mental health, greater happiness, and even physical benefits like reduced inflammation. And despite the seemingly bad news about the human condition, generous actions are exceedingly common: An estimated 73% of the world’s adults regularly engage in acts of generosity, including donating money, volunteering time, and/or helping a stranger, according to the 2024 World Giving Index, a survey conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation, a leading international charity.

There is an important social reason that people like to give, these researchers are also discovering: Performing generous acts boosts a sense of connection, allowing people to break out of their personal bubbles and focus more on other people’s concerns and life’s bigger picture than on themselves.

While it’s true that people are driven by a range of motivations, “the overwhelming majority of people truly have the capacity to care about other people and to be genuinely motivated by their welfare,” said Georgetown University psychology professor Abby Marsh, PhD, who studies highly altruistic behavior such as organ donation. “We also know that there is a really strong relationship between well-being and altruism, and that the relationship goes both ways.”

Researchers are using a range of methods to study these issues. For example, Lara Aknin, PhD, distinguished professor of social psychology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, and colleagues have conducted numerous studies showing that people report greater happiness when they’ve spent money or given goodies to others than when they’ve kept these things for themselves. That holds for college students (Science, Vol. 319, No. 5870, 2008opens in new window); Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 119, No. 2, 2020opens in new window); former inmates and at-risk youth (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 82, 2019); and poor people living in remote rural areas (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol. 144, No. 4, 2015opens in new window). And in a study using Gallup data on 136 countries, Aknin and colleagues found that prosocial giving was strongly related to happiness in most countries, regardless of their wealth or poverty (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 104, No. 4, 2013opens in new window).

Likewise, giving to others can ease depression, anxiety, and loneliness, finds Naomi Eisenberger, PhD, a professor of psychology at UCLA, and graduate student Maria Naclerio. In their study, the team randomized 777 people to perform self-chosen acts of kindness over two weeks toward themselves or toward others, or to go about their lives as usual (Emotion, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2026opens in new window). At the end of the study, depression scores fell for people who were kind to themselves. But those who performed kind acts for others not only felt less depressed, but less anxious and lonely as well. That difference was explained by the fact that their actions helped them feel more connected to others, said Naclerio. “ And we know that feelings of connection are critical for good mental health,” she said.

In a similar vein, generous behavior can reduce loneliness in populations that may need connection the most. Sociologist Dawn C. Carr, PhD, director of the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University, and colleagues examined the effects of volunteering among 5,882 older adults, all of whom were initially married. But over the four-year period of the study, some participants lost their spouses while others remained continuously married (Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Vol. 73, Issue 3, March 2018opens in new window).

On average, those who became widowed felt lonelier than those whose spouses were still alive. But those who began volunteering for two or more hours a week didn’t experience that same spike in loneliness; their loneliness levels were the same as those who remained continuously married and were doing a similar amount of volunteer work.

The findings suggest a surprisingly simple intervention for the many older people who feel lonely or have lost a spouse, said Carr. “Volunteering remains among the most potent and protective behaviors in later life, and one of the few shown to be associated with improved outcomes after spousal loss,” she said.

[Related: The case for kindness]

Besides showing that connection is an important prize for those who give to others, researchers are finding additional reasons that acts of kindness might help mitigate depression and anxiety. Jennifer S. Cheavens, PhD, professor of clinical psychology at The Ohio State University, and her then graduate student David R. Cregg, PhD, now at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, tested the effects of three interventions on 122 people with elevated levels of depression or anxiety. Over five weeks, participants either kept thought records that challenged their negative thinking—a common cognitive-behavioral technique; engaged in pleasant events with people they liked; or performed small acts of kindness of their choice (Journal of Positive Psychology, Vol. 18, No. 6, 2023opens in new window).

All three groups reported feeling less depressed and anxious at the end of the study. But those who performed kind acts were more likely than both other groups to feel connected to others, and to feel greater life satisfaction and less depression and anxiety than the group that kept thought records. This greater sense of connection was explained by a reduced focus on themselves, Cheavens also found. While thought records and pleasant events with others can invite the self-scrutiny that is common for those who are depressed, “When you’re trying to do nice things for others, you have to switch from thinking, ‘What is wrong with me?’ or ‘What are they thinking about me?’ to ‘What would make them happy?’” she said.

Psychologists have also examined factors that might facilitate generous behavior. One of these is having a choice in the matter. Netta Weinstein, PhD, and Richard M. Ryan, PhD, of the University of Rochester, looked at the influence of choice on people’s perceptions of giving. Over four experiments, they found that when people gave voluntarily, they experienced greater autonomy, relatedness, and competence than if they did so under a mandate, which in turn enhanced their sense of well-being (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 98, No. 2, 2010opens in new window). In another study, William T. Harbaugh, PhD, of the University of Oregon and colleagues found that when people gave freely to a local charity, the brain’s reward centers lit up more than when they were required to make a donation (Science, Vol. 316, No. 5831, 2007opens in new window).

People’s happiness levels are also heightened when they feel their generosity has made a difference, psychologists find. For example, Aknin and colleagues found that people who gave to a charity that provided a concrete promise for improving children’s health experienced greater happiness than those donating to a children’s charity with a more abstract mission (Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Vol. 88, 2013opens in new window).

And as other studies have noted, positive emotions are enhanced when the generous action provides the opportunity to connect with others. In a study reported in the International Journal of Happiness and Development (Vol. 1, No. 2, 2013)opens in new window, Aknin found that participants who received a $10 Starbucks gift card were happier if they spent it on a friend than on themselves—but only if they went there with the friend. The team also found that people reported greater happiness when they spent money on close others rather than on acquaintances (PLoS ONE, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2011opens in new window).

Collectively, these findings suggest that prosocial giving—whether volunteering for a good cause or helping an elderly person with groceries—can be powerful medicine, especially when combined with meaningful human connections, Aknin noted.

“The results of giving tend to be greatest,” she said, “when the giving is relational.”