I read the following article on line about a year ago. It seems that they have done some research on this great principle of “giving.” I thought you might enjoy it.
The Bible counsels misers that it’s better to give than to receive. Science agrees. People who made gifts to others or to charities reported they were happier than folks who didn’t share, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
While previous studies have shown that having more money can increase happiness, the researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard University wondered if the way people spent their money made any difference.
Turns out, it does.
Not Surprised
Lead researcher Elizabeth W. Dunn, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, said she wasn’t surprised that doing something for others made people happy.
But she was struck by how big the effect was and that how people spent money was more important than how much money they had.
“This work suggests that even making small alterations in how we spend money on a daily basis can make a difference in happiness,” Dunn said in a telephone interview.
“That doesn’t mean go get a high paying job so you can spend tons of money on others. The message is, given what you have, how can you make little alterations to do something for others,” she said.
And, she added, “there’s nothing special about money,” giving can involve time or special skills to help other people.
No Surprises Here Either
The report didn’t surprise Sue Citro, senior digital membership manager for the Nature Conservancy:
“We do hear from our members and our supporters that the do get a real feeling of satisfaction from knowing their giving is doing good,” she said.
Andrea Koslow, director of advertising at the American Red Cross, said: “The act of helping has its own profound effect.”
“People need a humanitarian outlet … feeling that they make a difference … that’s very motivating,” Koslow said.
The good feeling associated with giving is why workplace charity opportunities can engage employees and lift morale, added Kristine Templin, director of corporate partnerships at the American Red Cross.
The Research
The researchers started by asking a sample of 632 Americans, 55 percent of whom were women, to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 5, the higher the number the happier.
Then they asked the participants to report their annual income and estimate how much they spent on paying bills, buying gifts for themselves, buying gifts for others and giving to charity.
The first two were considered personal spending and averaged $1,714-a-month, the second two were termed “prosocial” spending and averaged $146-a-month.
“Personal spending was unrelated to happiness,” said the researchers. “But higher prosocial spending was associated with significantly greater happiness,” they found.
Not content with that, they then studied 16 employees of a company in Boston, asking about their happiness one month before and six to eight weeks after each received a profit-sharing bonus from their employer.
In the second interview they also asked about personal and prosocial spending and once again those who spent more on others were happier.
“The manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the amount of the bonus itself,” the researchers found.
And In Canada
Finally, 46 Canadian students were asked to rate their happiness and then each was given a random envelope containing money, ranging from $5 to $20. Some were instructed to spend it on themselves, others were told to buy a gift for someone else.
At 5 p.m. that day, they were called together again and asked to rate their happiness.
The amount of money had no impact on happiness, but those assigned to buy something for another person reported greater happiness than those told to get something for themselves, the researchers said.
A separate study published in 2006 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the same parts of the brain that produce the good feeling when a person receives a reward also respond when they give to someone else.
Indeed, researchers led by Jordan Grafman at the National Institutes of Health found the reward areas were more active when giving a gift than when receiving one.
It’s an interesting article, don’t you think?
If you’re a fan of the Bible then you know that God set up something very wonderful called, The Law of Giving and Receiving.
II Corinthians 9:6-11:
But this I say, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever.
Luke 6:38:
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
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In the lands and times of the Bible, in the small villages, early in the morning a young boy would lead the animals out to the fields. He would go to the different owners of the animals and lead them out to the field to graze. He would lead the asses from their cribs. He would lead the cows and oxen from their mangers.
healing, abundance, and all that we need. Those who are complaining and looking for sympathy and pity need to have at least the smarts of an ass and turn to God.