A Simple Way to Increase Happiness
(And Encourage Others To Do The Same)
Life is busy and often stressful. And when this happens, it can be difficult to create your own feelings of happiness, let alone contribute to someone else's happiness.
Fortunately, there's a simple strategy you can use to help give your happiness a boost... and do the same for others.
It's called the Moral Eleiration Effect.
It sounds a bit like rocket science, but it means something quite simple.
Essentially, it means if someone performs an act of kindness for you, you are more likely to perform an act of kindness for someone else.
Merely observing someone's act of kindness, even if it wasn't meant for you, makes you more likely to pay it forward.
Fowler et al. (2010) first demonstrated this effect by conducting a study in which they played a "giving" game.
Results showed that giving selflessly to one person caused the effect to spread throughout the lab from person-to-person.
So, one simple act of kindness would ultimately impact strangers as the act of giving became contagious.
Take-Home Message
We already know through previous studies that giving increases feelings of happiness.
It's quite remarkable to think that a simple act of giving could positively impact the person you are helping and possibly many other people you've never even met!
So, feel free to use your creativity here and help someone.
If you are struggling to come up with ideas, one simple way of doing this during a busy day would be to consider paying for the order behind you the next time you are at a Tim Horton's drive-thru.
That simple act of kindness could go a lot farther than you think.
