harder to maintain their relationships and report more love and affection for those they interact with. Overall, people with higher giving‐related traits and behaviors have more positive and satisfying relationships.
Is generosity good for romance? Research finds that being generous can help to encourage new romances. For example, kindness is the top trait that both men and women are looking for in a romantic relationship, and generous people are seen as more desirable romantic partners. Our research has found that generous people are rated as more physically attractive: the good‐looking giver effect. And, a large national study found that more generous single people were more likely to be in a relationship the following year.
Physical Outcomes
There are many physical health implications of giving time and money, ranging from immediate physiological processes to healthy lifestyle behaviors to healthcare usage to longevity (see Bekkers, Konrath, and Smith 2016, for a review).
Brain Responses
When donating money, the pleasure and reward centers of the brain are activated as much as when receiving money. Giving support to loved ones also activates neural reward centers, while simultaneously lowering neural fear and stress areas. And when directly compared, research finds that giving to loved ones has more neural benefits than donating to charity.
Stress Hormones
Daily stressors like arguments or work deadlines can increase cortisol, a stress hormone that is toxic for health and predicts early mortality, especially cardiovascular‐related. Volunteering buffers people from cortisol response to stressors – on days that people volunteer, their cortisol remains low, even in the presence of stressors. People with giving‐related traits like empathy also have lower stress hormones during stressful tasks, and small actions (e.g., shifting one's focus to others, writing an affectionate letter) have similar effects.
Gene Regulation and Cellular Aging
Scientists have examined changes in people's genetic expressions after doing kind acts (versus control activities) for one month. Such kind behaviors cause inflammation‐related genes to be down‐regulated. Similar results are found in volunteers, in addition to the up‐regulation of antiviral genes.
Strength and Energy
Giving can also make people physically stronger, at least temporarily. Researchers asked people to hold a 5‐pound weight with their arms stretched horizontally for as long as they could. They were then given a $1 payment and half of them were asked to donate it to UNICEF (100 percent agreed), while the other half just kept it. People who donated the money held the 5‐pound weight longer than those who didn't. Other research confirms that giving time may also have similar effects. Older adults who volunteered for 4–8 months (compared to controls) reported increased strength and energy, better grip strength, and faster walking and stair climbing speeds.
Pain Responses
Giving can also reduce physiological responses to pain. One study found that people who gave to charity tolerated higher levels of pain compared to those who kept money for themselves. Givers also show less activation in pain‐related areas of their brain compared to nongivers. Volunteering and other forms of helping can even help to reduce pain among chronic pain patients.
Cardiovascular Risk
Much research examines giving and cardiovascular risk factors. It finds that volunteering, giving money, and giving support to loved ones are associated with lower blood pressure, lower blood glucose, and fewer inflammatory markers.
Most research is on older adults, who are at higher risk. However, an experiment that assigned some teens to volunteer, compared to a control group, found that volunteering for four months decreased several cardiovascular risk factors (inflammation, cholesterol, body mass index) even in this young population.
Health Behaviors and Healthcare Usage
Volunteering increases physical activity since it gets people out of the house. Volunteering is especially beneficial for older adults who were previously inactive, with one study finding that their physical activity increased 110 percent after being assigned 4–8 months of volunteering. Older adults who help others more informally also have increased physical activity.
As for healthcare usage, our research finds that older adult volunteers are more likely to use preventative healthcare services: they are 30 percent more likely to get a flu shot, 47 percent more likely to get cholesterol tests, women are 53 percent more likely to receive mammograms and 21 percent more likely to receive Pap smears, and men are 59 percent more likely to receive prostate exams. These can help to identify or prevent more serious health conditions. We also found that volunteers spent 38 percent less time in the hospital compared to nonvolunteers.
Longevity
A meta‐analysis that included 14 studies with over 74,000 older adults found that volunteering was associated with a 47 percent decreased risk of dying overall, and a smaller (24 percent) decreased risk when adjusting for background factors like age, sex, socioeconomic status, physical health, health behaviors, and social connections. Since then, a high‐quality national study of older adults found that volunteers were 44 percent less likely to die than nonvolunteers.
To put this in perspective, eating six or more fruit and vegetables per day lowers mortality risk by 26 percent, and regular exercise lowers mortality risk by between 23 and 33 percent. So, volunteering lowers the risk of early death at least as much as traditional health behaviors. When comparing types of giving, we have found that people who give time (volunteering, giving support, or caregiving), but not money, are less likely to die. Although lots of research finds that charitable giving feels good, this doesn't necessarily translate to a longer life.
The Joy of Giving around the World
Most research on the effects of giving has focused on people from Western cultures. However, there is an emerging cross‐cultural literature that suggests people from all over the world experience the joy of giving and volunteering. Studies have examined between 136 to 142 countries worldwide, and confirmed that in most cultures, volunteering is associated with higher well‐being (86 percent of cultures studied) and better physical health (88 percent of cultures studied) and donating to charity is associated with higher well‐being (90 percent). These results are found even in poor countries where resources are scarcer, and even in an isolated rural village with limited Western influence on a South Pacific Ocean island. They are also not explained by demographic differences in givers compared to nongivers.
The Joy of Giving across the Lifespan
Most research on the effects of giving has been conducted on older adults. Yet, giving time and money also predicts better psychological well‐being and health in middle‐aged adults, young adults, adolescents, children, and even toddlers.
Still the benefits of giving tend to get stronger as people age. This was recently confirmed in a study of over 1.7 million people from 166 nations. Although the study found joy of giving effects at all ages, it also found that 50‐year‐olds experienced double the joy of giving compared to 20‐year‐olds, and 80‐year‐olds experienced even more – 2.74 times
