Kindness is highly valued by givers and receivers, and is contagious

January 7, 2025

This is a slightly edited version of a post from December, 2022

Being kind can make you happier, and promoting kindness can increase productivity at the workplace.

Researchers from the Booth School of Business (University of Chicago) demonstrated through psychological experiments that participants tasked with random acts of kindness to others routinely underestimate how much happiness this brings to the recipient. Further, the moods of both the givers and receivers were improved with this act of kindness, which ranged from giving out cupcakes or hot chocolate to writing letters.

They also did research in a corporate office in Spain where they asked givers to practice five specified acts of kindness over four weeks for specified receivers. The givers became less depressed and more satisfied with their lives and jobs, and the receivers themselves were dramatically more likely to exhibit their own prosocial behaviors.

Implications for employers:

- Create opportunities for employees to be kind to their colleagues, especially during the winter when rates of depression can be higher

- Programs that promote volunteering and charitable giving can improve the atmosphere in the workplace

Here are a few other publications on this topic:

World Economic Forum (2022): Those who were fully engaged in kind acts had reductions in depression and anxiety.

Journal of Social Psychology (2019): Performing kindness activities for seven days increases happiness. Researchers also showed a “dose effect,” where more acts of kindness led to more happiness.

Wall Street Journal (2024): How to get the most out of your giving

Financial Times (2024): How to be a kind manager, without being a pushover

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Illustration by Dall-E