patterns were found worldwide. This might be because of different types of volunteer jobs across different age groups, or different motives and emotional responses to giving as people age.
The Joy of Giving during Difficult Times
Giving time and money can promote increased happiness and health even during difficult times. For example, aging adults often face increased difficulty completing tasks like lifting heavy objects or climbing stairs. Research finds that people who have more altruistic attitudes are better able to cope emotionally with such losses of independence. Indeed, those who choose to volunteer despite these limitations live longer than those who do not.
The joy of giving has been found in other groups facing challenges, including those receiving welfare benefits, individuals with disabilities, those with traumatic brain injuries, individuals with lumbar spine disorders, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, and older adults with dementia, other forms of cognitive impairment, or living in long‐term care facilities.
Among those with ongoing psychological problems, like post‐traumatic stress disorder or social anxiety, giving can help to manage their symptoms. In fact, research finds that more depressed young people experience more joy of giving than less depressed ones. And among teens who experience adverse childhood experiences, volunteering can help to buffer them from poor mental health. Even individuals who have had trouble with the law experience the joy of giving, which is a hopeful finding suggesting potential motivations and pathways for rehabilitation.
People often increase charitable giving in response to disasters and pandemics, and research finds that such increases in charitable donation are associated with increases in happiness – despite the stress and trauma of the situation itself. In the face of tragedy, giving time and money is not only good for the recipients, but for the givers themselves.
The COVID‐19 pandemic created a uniquely challenging situation in that many givers found it more difficult to give, whether because of financial constraints or being homebound. Even in this time, givers experienced more positive emotions overall. However, givers who also perceived high risk to themselves or their loved ones actually experienced more negative emotions than less generous people. More research will help to uncover the complex implications of giving during the pandemic.
The Limits of Giving
This chapter covers voluntary giving behaviors like volunteering for nonprofits, giving money, and giving support to loved ones. Involuntary giving such as that required by schools, parents, or courts is unlikely to have the same benefits. In addition, caregiving is a more extreme form of giving that is often less voluntary, more intensive, and can include seeing loved ones in pain or distress. Some research finds that caregiving is associated with poorer well‐being and health outcomes. Yet, other research finds that the helping itself can be beneficial, especially with enough support, even though seeing loved ones in distress can be harmful. However, this complex type of giving goes beyond the scope of this review.
When it comes to other types of giving, it is possible for people to give beyond their means. For example, studies have found that volunteering between 1 and 15 hours per week is associated with optimal health and well‐being. However, joyful givers may well know their limits.
As for charitable giving, one recent study found that Americans who donated 10 percent of their incomes were happier than those who donated less. The authors used 10 percent as a cutoff point since some religions encourage tithing, however, they did not explore whether there was a point at which giving was no longer beneficial. This could be because it was highly unusual for people to give 10 percent away – only 2.7 percent of participants did so. Another study found that the more money people gave, the higher their psychological well‐being, and the authors did not find any cutoff point after which there were fewer benefits of giving. In fact, spending money on others is associated with increased well‐being even in lower‐income countries. However, it is reasonable to assume that at a certain point, donating to charity might be bad for well‐being, especially if people give to the point that they cannot take care of their own needs. Still, such over‐giving is rare, and the more common problem is under‐giving.
In general, it seems wise to give from one's surplus resources. For example, it might be better for lower income people to give their time than their money, since volunteering predicts more happiness in lower income people compared to higher income people.
Finally, when it comes to everyday kindness, the more people give, and the more they make giving part of the practice of their everyday life, the more joy they experience from giving. For example, performing nine acts of kindness per week leads to more happiness than performing three acts per week. Future research should try to better understand potential limits of giving for well‐being and health.
More Joyful Giving
There are a number of practices that can help to increase the joy of giving.
Variety
Research finds that giving in a variety of ways and to different types of people makes people happier than giving the same way and to the same people over and over again. Just like a healthy diet of food, a healthy giving diet ideally involves variety to avoid the acts becoming routine.
Altruism
Altruistic attitudes also matter for happiness, like saying that you enjoy helping others or that you try to help even if others can't return the favor. In fact, research finds that altruistic attitudes can be more important for happiness than giving behaviors themselves. And my research has found seeing oneself as caring predicts a lower risk of dying in older adults than actual giving behaviors. The thought counts – being ready to serve and help matters, even if actual opportunities for helping do not present themselves.
Choice
When giving is mandatory, it does not feel as good; givers experience the most psychological benefits of giving when they can freely choose to do so. This is supported by research finding that voluntary giving activates reward centers in the brain, but required giving does not.
Concrete
Thinking about giving as more concrete (e.g., make someone smile) instead of more abstract (e.g., make someone happy) increases the joy of giving. So, fundraisers should consider designing their donation appeals to encourage simple concrete behaviors, rather than higher‐level conceptual ones.
Social
The social aspects of giving also matter. For example, volunteering is associated with double the happiness when it involves directly interacting with others versus more indirect types of helping. There are no known studies that examine similar questions regarding charitable giving, but one might expect that giving in person (e.g., to nonprofit staff, at charity events) would increase happiness more than giving in other ways (e.g., mail, online, automatic payroll deduction).
Summary: Giving Joyfully
Many are aware of the power of vaccines, and we can increase our joy of giving by giving ourselves a V.A.C.C.S. Giving behaviors that have Variety, Altruism, Choice, are Concrete, and Social can increase the joy of giving.
Conclusion
