Studies help other people for their own happiness?

Kindness and helpfulness increase our satisfaction
Many self-help manuals recommend people to help others to become happier and happier. Researchers have now found in a review of this thesis that so-called acts of kindness are a sure way to increase your own happiness.

Researchers from the internationally recognized University of Oxford and the University of Bournemouth found in an investigation that helping other people increases our own happiness and satisfaction. The doctors published a press release with the results of their study.

Helpfulness and kindness towards other people makes us happier and happier. It does not matter if we help strangers or friends and family. (Image: Peter Atkins / fotolia.com)

Researchers analyze data from more than 400 studies
Does it really increase our satisfaction if we help other people? Or are such statements only superstition and not verifiable? Physicians now tried to clarify exactly this question. For systematic review, the scientists analyzed more than 400 previously published studies. They had examined the relationship between friendliness and happiness.

Friendliness towards other people leads to satisfaction
The researchers identified 21 studies that focused on the kindness of others and the positive impact on our personal happiness. These studies have shown that it automatically makes us happier and happier when we are kind to other people.

Meta-analysis determines overall effect of friendliness on happiness
The physicians performed a so-called meta-analysis to combine the statistics of the earlier study results. On this basis, it could be calculated that there is indeed a total effect of friendliness on our own happiness, say the experts. Unfortunately, the size of this effect is unfortunately relatively modest. It's less than one point on a zero-ten fortune scale, the scientists add.

Friendliness generally leads to more happiness
The scientists also found that a friendliness to family and friends is not different from the effect that occurs in friendliness to strangers. However, purposefulness seems to have a greater effect on our happiness than an indiscriminate friendliness.

Kindness and kindness does not lead to a radical change of life
An act of kindness will not completely change your life, but it could help guide those affected to the right path, explains author. Oliver Scott Curry from the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. People are social animals. "We are happy to help family, friends, colleagues, community members or even strangers," the expert adds.

People generally seem to be interested in the well-being of others
People actually seem to derive some kind of satisfaction from helping other people, physicians explain. This is probably because we really care about the welfare of others. So-called acts of kindness are also a good way to make new friends and thus build social relationships.

Kindness and helpfulness as a remedy?
Many researchers over the last decade have been trying to find a connection between friendliness and happiness. Goodness towards others has been explored as a possible cure for various diseases and problems. These include, for example, social isolation, but also serious mental and physical health conditions, the researchers explain. Further research should now examine the exact impact of goodness on other people and compare the impact of family help with the effects of helping strangers, the researchers said. "Unfortunately, we know too little about this area," explain the authors. (As)