Sunday, May 27, 2007

I Think I Need to Write More World of Good Posts

Here's a snippet from Arthur C. Brooks article in the Wall Street Journal about a year and a half ago.

But beyond earning, taxing and spending, there is an even clearer link between money and happiness: charity. The evidence is unambiguous that donating money (and time) is one of the best ways to buy happiness. People who donate to charity are 40% more likely to say they are "very happy" than non-donors. Psychologists have even tested whether charity makes people happy using randomized, controlled experiments -- the same procedure used for testing pharmaceuticals, except that, instead of administering a drug to one group and a placebo to the other, researchers randomly assign one group to act charitably toward another. The results are clear: Givers of charity earn substantial mental and physical health rewards, even more than do the recipients of charity -- empirical evidence that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.
I think I'd be happier if I spent more time working on posts about charity and kindness.

1 comment:

Kelly the little black dog said...

Very cool! It does seem consistent with the observation that people often feel more positive when they have something outside of themselves to focus on.