Day 192 of #LiveWell2017

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

A new study published in the journal, Emotion, on June 6th shows that acts of kindness at work benefit the givers, the receivers, and the whole organization. The study, done by researchers from the University of California, included having 19 of the organization’s workers act as “givers” of kind acts, unbeknownst to their colleagues.

After four weeks of random acts of kindness, participants reported 10 times more prosocial behaviors (an act intended to help others, without expectation of reward) than the people in the control group who did not receive random acts of kindness. In addition, the “givers” got more out of the act of giving than the receivers did. I guess that old adage, it’s better to give than receive really is true! The best part of the study was that the receivers became givers by “paying it forward” to other people in the workplace. So, kindness really does multiply kindness.

What’s your workplace like? How might random acts of kindness change it?