Even though they often enhance happiness, acts of kindness, such as giving a friend a ride or bringing food for a sick family member, can be somewhat rare because people underestimate how good these actions make the recipients feel, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.
The study finds that although givers tend to focus on the object they’re providing or the action they’re performing, receivers instead concentrate on the feelings of warmth the act of kindness has conjured up. This means that givers’ “miscalibrated expectations” can function as a barrier to performing more prosocial behaviors such as helping, sharing, or donating.
To quantify these attitudes and behaviors, the researchers conducted a series of experiments.
Researchers delivered the hot chocolate to the stranger and told them the study participant had chosen to give them their drink. Recipients reported their mood, and performers indicated how they thought recipients felt after getting the drink.
Performers underestimated the significance of their act. They expected recipients’ mood at an average of 2.7 on a scale of minus 5 (much more negative than normal), to 5 (much more positive than normal), while recipients reported an average of 3.5.
The Kumar and Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago also performed a similar experiment in the same park with cupcakes. They recruited 200 participants and divided them into two groups [of 100]. In the control group, 50 participants received a cupcake for participating. They rated their mood, and the other 50 people rated how they thought the receivers felt after getting a cupcake.
For the second group of 100, 50 people were told they could give away their cupcake to strangers. They rated their own mood and the expected mood of the cupcake recipients. The researchers found that participants rated cupcake recipients’ happiness at about the same level whether they got their cupcake through an act of random kindness or from the researchers. What’s more, recipients who received a cupcake through an act of kindness were happier than control group recipients.
“Performers are not fully taking into account that their warm acts provide value from the act itself,” Kumar says. “The fact that you’re being nice to others adds a lot of value beyond whatever the thing is.”
The researchers found that recipients who received their lab gift through another participant’s random act of kindness were more generous to strangers during the game. They divvied up the $100 more equally, giving away $48.02 on average versus $41.20.
“It turns out generosity can actually be contagious,” Kumar says. “Receivers of a prosocial act can pay it forward. Kindness can actually spread.”
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