The Compassionate Instinct

The first major study to observe this phenomenon began in 1986, when the National Institute on Aging undertook an ambitious long-term research project. The Americans’ Changing Lives Studies divided 3,617 respondents into two groups: those who did volunteer work and those who didn’t. The researchers surveyed each member of the two groups in 1986, 1989, 1994, and 2006, comparing their levels of happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health, and depression.

“People who were in better physical and mental health were more likely to volunteer,” reported the study’s leader, Peggy Thoits, professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University. “And conversely, volunteer work was good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteered were happier and experienced better physical health and less depression.”

Building on that study, researchers Marc Musick and John Wilson at the University of Texas used the same data but focused in on mental health. They, too, found that over time, volunteering lowered depression. “Some of the protection came from the social integration of volunteering,” Musick found. “Volunteer work improves access to social and psychological resources, which are known to counter negative moods.”

Is the “activism cure” all in our heads, or does it work on our bodies, too? Paul Arnstein of Boston College evaluated the effects of volunteering on chronic pain—and found that volunteering reduced pain and disability. The participants named “making a connection” and “having a sense of purpose” as the sources of their improved health. When they were polled again several months later, the participants reported that their well-being had continued to improve.

“The narrow thinking that medications are the only way to control persistent pain,” Dr. Arnstein concluded, “has resulted in a lot of suffering.”

Researchers have discovered a physiological basis for the warm glow that often seems to accompany giving. “The benefits of giving back are definitely biological,” says bioethicist Stephen G. Post, coauthor of Why Good Things Happen to Good People. “Contemporary neuroscience has confirmed the connection between the physiological and psychological. We know now that the stress response, hormones, and even the immune system are impacted by, and impact, the pathways in the brain. MRI studies of the participants’ brains revealed that making a donation activated the mesolimbic pathway—the brain’s reward center.”

Citing the findings of an ongoing study sponsored by the National Institute on Mental Health, Post reports, “The mesolimbic pathway of the emotional part of the brain releases feel-good chemicals, triggering a feeling of physical energy. Thirteen percent of people also report alleviation of physical pain. So there really is joy in giving.”

Chief among those chemicals is dopamine, the hormone and neurotransmitter that plays important roles in motor activity, learning, motivation, sleep, attention, and mood. Dopamine reinforces the human urge to do whatever feels good—for better and for worse. On the upside, dopamine encourages us to hang out with people who are nice to us, savor a great meal, head for the hammock on a hot summer day, and do nice things for others.

“When we do good deeds,” Post says, “we’re rewarded by a dopamine pulse. Giving a donation or volunteering in a food bank tweaks the same source of pleasure that lights up when we eat or have sex. It’s clear that helping others, even at low thresholds of several hours of volunteerism a week, creates mood elevation.”

On the downside, dopamine has been implicated in addiction, serving as a flashing neon “pleasure” sign that keeps the addict coming back for more. But addicts, too, can benefit from giving back. “Alcoholics who work the 12th step of Alcoholics Anonymous, bringing the message to other addicts,” Post says, “have twice the recovery rate of those who don’t.”

Who needs heroin when volunteering can give you what researchers call “the helper’s high”? Based on brain scans of his research subjects, National Institutes of Health cognitive neuroscientist Jordan Grafman reports, “Those brain structures that are activated when you get a reward are the same ones that are activated when you give. In fact, they’re activated more when you give.”

THE RESILIENCE FACTOR

If you or anyone you know has ever gone through a hard time—in other words, if you or anyone you know are human—you’ve undoubtedly observed that people respond as differently to adversity as they do to flavors of ice cream. Some sail through with confident, optimistic flags unfurled. Others facing a similar situation spend weeks, months, or years flailing in the quicksand of despair.