Does Doing Good Really Do You Good?
It feels good when we do a good deed, but how do we know it’s anything more than a fleeting sensation? Is doing good for others actually good for you?
University of Oxford senior researcher Jeremy Howick lays out the evidence gathered from studies of volunteering.
In 2011, a randomized trial with 30 adults in Ohio explored whether intergenerational volunteering could help people with mild to moderate dementia. Half the adults spent an hour every other week helping young students with reading, writing, and history, while the control group were told not to do any volunteer work.
At the end of five months, the adults who volunteered lowered their stress levels compared to those who had not helped.
Based on that small study, in 2012 researchers conducted a meta-analysis, looking at data from multiple studies to get more accurate statistics. The meta-analysis drew from five randomized trials involving 477 people who engaged in some sort of tutoring – either young children or adults learn English as a second language. The results were mixed.
The upside? Volunteering improved things like mental functioning, physical activity, strength, and stress levels. It made volunteers feel a greater sense of purpose and meaning.
The inconclusive? Volunteering did not seem to have a positive impact on general health or the number of falls among elderly volunteers.
A follow-up 2013 Canadian study involving young people explored the specific relationship between volunteering and physical health benefits. Fifty-two high school sophomores were asked to volunteer weekly, helping younger students with homework, sports, and after-school activities, while a control group of fifty-four students did no volunteering.
The researchers took blood samples (to look for biomarkers that predict the risk of developing cardiovascular disease) and checked their body mass index before and after the study. The results? Teens who volunteered showed greater reductions in all of the biomarkers predicting cardiovascular disease. They also lost more weight than kids in the control group. The adolescents who helped others helped themselves in the process.
How does helping help the helper?
How does volunteering produce physical benefits? It obviously impacts your fitness if the volunteering work is physical in nature, like walking the dog of someone who’s bedridden. But simply connecting with others may reduce stress and produce health benefits, says Howick.
Perhaps evolution explains it, as the parts of the brain people linked to dopamine and serotonin production are activated when people donate money. “Our ancient ancestors who helped each other were more likely to survive, so received a dopamine ‘high’ in exchange for altruistic behavior,” Howick argues.
Dopamine is not just a temporary feel-good hormone, but it plays a role in treating heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, and even drug addiction.
In short, the good news is that we don’t have to participate in a study to receive the psychological and physical benefits of helping someone else. Why not offer a cup of coffee or clean clothes to the next homeless person you come across? Howick suggests these small, concrete acts of kindness will not only impact others, they just might make you healthier as well.
Read the full article here.
Learn more about the neural link between generosity and happiness.