What benefits does generosity have for the giver, health-wise?

When people are generous, they experience pleasure through that act or behavior—or even by just imagining or anticipating being generous. The more easily people experience positive states where they are trusting, safe, and connected to others, the more happy they will report their lives are overall. There’s something about generosity and its relationship to connecting with others and cooperating that makes a person emotionally positive and resilient in the face of challenges.

In terms of physical health, the literature is still emerging. There is a long tradition of science showing that people who volunteer more tend to be healthier, but there’s a question of the directionality of that relationship. Are people who are healthier just more inclined to volunteer? That being said, there are research studies showing that volunteering does afford a small benefit to a person’s physical health. There’s also research on mortality, which shows that later in life when people are more involved in generous behavior they tend to be less likely to die. There are lots of potential explanations, but the primary argument is that when people spend more time involved in meaningful pursuits or behaviors, this is something that serves their well-being, as well as strengthens their social support network. If you’re out in the world being generous, you’re creating connections with other people that serve you in the long run. That sense of social support is very important for health.

If you imagine the last time you did something that was really heartwarming as you witnessed your efforts make a difference to somebody else, thinking about that experience again can re-invoke those feelings. And it can be something that adds to your sense of purpose and meaning as a human. And in many ways, it can make it easier for you to recover from some difficult moments that you might be encountering in that time. So, being able to think about and reflect on and relive or even write about these experiences can be something that serves your well-being. Obviously ruminating can be bad for us, too; it’s harmful for our mental health if we sit around worrying about things that might not happen or might be over that we can’t do anything about.

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