Helping others makes you happier

Several years ago, I was out for a run and I found someone pushing their bike with a flat tire. I didn’t have any equipment with me, but I was close to home and offered to help them fix their tire. I still remember this, and it makes me smile.

In a world that feels very oppositional right now, I often wonder if that contributes to how exhausted and burnt out we feel. If you don’t know if someone is baiting you or going to start yelling at you because of who knows what, it is a lot easier to put your head down and just ignore the people around you. And let’s be honest, given the militarized and policed environment happening in various places around the world, this can definitely seem like, and may be, the safer option.

Unfortunately, this also creates an environment where helping others can be more difficult. You may not want to stop and help someone pick up the things that fell when their bag broke because there could be someone coming around the corner who will attack or arrest you. You may not want to express empathy for someone because somebody else might be pulling out their cell phone to record you and post a small clip that, when taken out of context, makes you appear evil. Or you risk trying to ask an honest question in a supposedly public forum and having your mic cut-off and the moderator telling you that your parents should have beaten you more (Dekuyper, 2025) (the first two are hypothetical based on other stories but the last one actually happened a couple of weeks ago to a high school student in Alberta).

Here’s the thing, though, helping people actually helps you feel happier. Curry and colleagues (2018) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis (they analyzed a whole bunch of previously published research) on the impact of performing acts of kindness on the well-being of the person doing the act. Their findings support the conclusions of the individual studies: helping others makes you happier. This held regardless of sex and age. The size of the effect was small to medium.

In another study, Cash, Aknin, and Girme (2024) studied whether everyday acts of kindness helped people get through major life transitions. In their study, they focused on individuals who were starting university. They found that students reported higher well-being on weeks when they did more than their average number of prosocial acts. The scale the researchers used measured happiness, flourishing, thriving, optimism, resilience, anxiety, and loneliness. The students reported greater happiness, flourishing, optimism, and resilience and lower anxiety and loneliness when they did more prosocial acts than they usually did. The acts were classified as being social (e.g., giving someone directions) or solitary (e.g. donating to a good cause). Both the social and solitary acts contributed to their overall well-being. I do wonder if there is a capping point. At some point, my average number of acts will be high enough that beating it is difficult. Does that mean that I’m out of luck once I reach that point?

I get that it is difficult these days, and I want everyone to stay safe, but I hope you are inspired to do an act of kindness for someone and see if we can bring a little more happiness into the world each day.