As a follow-up to the previous post, here is a brief overview of recent work that investigated the impact of prosocial behaviour on an individual’s happiness. This is a nice study to the extent that it compared the happiness levels of individuals who ‘treated themselves’ with those of individuals performing actions that benefited others. The authors found that only those who were kind to others benefited from improved happiness, whereas those who only did something for themselves did not find any improvements. The moral of the story? If you want to feel happier, do more for others….

Reference to original study: Nelson, S. K., Layous, K., Cole, S. W., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2016). Do unto others or treat yourself? The effects of prosocial and self-focused behavior on psychological flourishing. Emotion, 16, 850-861. doi: 10.1037/emo0000178