Posts Tagged ‘happiness’
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The science of happiness study concludes: “Perhaps we are a selfish nation”
Depressing news for altruism today, with the news that The Science of Happiness study has concluded that altruism has a negative effect on happiness compared to the control group.
Some 26,000 people participated in last week’s online study, testing one of four, commonly-used happiness techniques: expressing gratitude, smiling, recalling a pleasant event from the day before and carrying out an act of kindness. Each was instructed via a YouTube video – here’s the kindness clip:
All groups recorded an increase in happiness, but the “acts of kindness” group achieved -8% less happiness than the control group. In an article in today’s Guardian, Dr Wiseman concludes: “Perhaps we are a selfish nation.” This conclusion will come as a surprise to people working in the voluntary sector, where there’s an abundance of case studies, anecdotes and research showing how volunteering can make people feel more confident, healthier and happier.
Francesca Borgonovi’s 2008 paper, Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal volunteering and self-reported health and happiness, concludes that people who volunteer report better health and greater happiness than people who do not, a relationship that is not driven by socio-economic differences between volunteers and non-volunteers. A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality in 2008 showed that students who engage in virtue-building activities such as volunteering report being happier than their more hedonistic counterparts. And ICM Research findings commissioned for CSV (Community Service Volunteers) and Barclays in 2004 found that 71% of volunteers offering their professional skills and experience said volunteering helps combat depression.
So what’s going on with The Science of Happiness? There are obvious differences between Wiseman’s study and the altruism we see in volunteering, including motivation, community impact and level of commitment. Maybe doing things for others with the sole objective of making yourself happier just doesn’t amount to true altruism.
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