See Buy Happiness—by Giving Your Money Away: Generosity can boost your mood and health if you do it right by Dalvin Brown of The WSJ (I used the print edition title in the title of this post).
I am always interested in issues like this. If people are helping others are they doing it because they truly are altruistic or is it in their self interest? What if you make yourself better off by helping others? Was it truly an act of kindness? And what about the invisible hand, where Adam Smith says we make society better off when we are acting in our self interest?
After excerpts from The WSJ article I have excerpts from some other posts on topics like this (which includes Adam Smith and his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments) and links to many other related posts. Now excerpts from The WSJ article:
"Next time you’re feeling stressed, try giving some money away.
Generosity is a powerful drug even in small doses. Donations to a worthy cause or acts of kindness to friends give your mind and body a boost.
Yes, the side effects of a charitable act may include a better mood, lower blood pressure and a longer life, according to studies from brain scientists and economists. You might experience a spike in serotonin and dopamine, hormones associated with happiness, and a drop in cortisol, researchers say. (You also get some tax benefits.)
Before you start using your checkbook as a prescription pad, there is one caveat. How you give money and time matters more than how much, says Sara Konrath, a social psychologist leading a research lab at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy."
"Generosity works best when you mean it."
"You’ll feel 10% more satisfied giving a voluntary donation than when it is an obligation, a 2007 study from the University of Oregon found."
"A study by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business found that the joy of making a $5 gift lasted five days, while the effect of the more self-serving “retail therapy” faded much faster."
"You will feel a deeper connection if you watch how your donation is used. Charities that send regular impact updates see more engaged, generous donors."
volunteering your time can do even more for your health, well-being and relationships than money.
Two hours of weekly volunteer work is enough to lower your stress, a study led by the sociology department at Georgia State University found. It is also enough to provide a greater sense of purpose."
Adam Smith wrote a book called The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
One point he made there was that we are able to sympathize with other
people by trying imagine what they are going through (and I wonder if we
need to be good storytellers to be able to do that). Neuroeconomist
Paul Zak has been studying how the hormone oxytocin plays a role in
making us feel good when we have empathy for others (beware: Zak is a
big hugger). See an earlier post Adam Smith vs. Bart Simpson for more details.
There is an interesting book called Paleopoetics: The Evolution of the Preliterate Imagination. It relates storytelling to evolution.
Click here to go the Amazon listing. It is by Christopher Collins, professor emeritus of English at New York University. Here is the description:
"Christopher Collins introduces an exciting new field of research traversing evolutionary biology, anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and literary study. Paleopoetics maps the selective processes that originally shaped the human genus millions of years ago and prepared the human brain to play, imagine, empathize, and engage in fictive thought as mediated by language. A manifestation of the "cognitive turn" in the humanities, Paleopoetics calls for a broader, more integrated interpretation of the reading experience, one that restores our connection to the ancient methods of thought production still resonating within us.Click here to read a longer description by Collins himself.
Speaking with authority on the scientific aspects of cognitive poetics, Collins proposes reading literature using cognitive skills that predate language and writing. These include the brain's capacity to perceive the visible world, store its images, and retrieve them later to form simulated mental events. Long before humans could share stories through speech, they perceived, remembered, and imagined their own inner narratives. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Collins builds an evolutionary bridge between humans' development of sensorimotor skills and their achievement of linguistic cognition, bringing current scientific perspective to such issues as the structure of narrative, the distinction between metaphor and metonymy, the relation of rhetoric to poetics, the relevance of performance theory to reading, the difference between orality and writing, and the nature of play and imagination."
Here is the new article from this week The Dalai Lama Explains Why Being Kind to Others is the Secret to Happiness. Excerpt:
"Have you ever wondered why it matters that you care for other people?Then the article has a long statement from the Dalai Lama on this philosophy. But some economists might say that you can't run a successful business if you don't care about others and try to learn their wants and desires. Here is what Adam Smith said in The Wealth of Nations
It seems commonsense that this is a good way to live life. But there are dominant philosophies today that suggest we need to maximize our own individual self-interest.
This comes from economic theories of capitalism that suggest when people look after their own self-interest, then society is better off.
The Dalai Lama explains why this doesn’t make sense in the beautiful passage below. As he says, it’s an obvious fact that your own sense of wellbeing can be provided through your relationships with others. So it’s best to start cultivating practices of kindness and compassion."
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”
Related Posts:
Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Virtue, Thorstein Veblen (and Adam Smith, too!) (2007)
Adam Smith vs. Bart Simpson (2011) (Relates to Smith's book on sympathy The Theory of Moral Sentiments)
The Dalai Lama Says It Is Sometimes OK To Be Selfish (2013)
Is altruism a result of selfishness? (2017)
Want to be happy and successful? Try compassion (2017)
Do you have to be selfish to make more money? (2018)
Does collective self-deception mask selfish behavior? (2018)
Why Doing Good Makes It Easier to Be Bad (2019)
People sometimes pay for for goods even when they don't have to (2019)
Why being kind to others is good for your health (and that can include donating money) (2020)
There is a positive relationship between prosociality and labor market success (2021)
The Invisible Hand Increases Trust, Cooperation, and Universal Moral Action (2022)
The Instinct to Share Our Good Fortune (2023)
You Don’t Have to Be a Jerk to Succeed (2024)
Are Moral People Happier? (2024)
