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Most of us are familiar with the steps that we can take to boost our wellbeing. For our physical health, we are prescribed diet, exercise, sleep and sobriety. Add to that a course in mindfulness, a shiny new bullet journal, and the occasional digital detox, and you may think you are all set for a year of health, happiness and productivity.
There is nothing wrong with any of these lifestyle changes, per se, but they tend to be self-focused. So, why not break with tradition and look outwards towards a cause that matters to you? A body of research shows that, besides helping others, do-gooding can pay dividends for the brain and body. The tricky part seems to be committing to the right activity for the right reasons.
Evidence for this altruistic health boon has been building for decades. Just consider some eye-opening results from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which began following the fates of 10,000 high school graduates in 1957. As part of the ongoing research, participants were asked to record their involvement in organisations such as parent-teacher associations, youth groups, community centres, and charity or welfare groups.
Analysing the data up to 2004, Prof Jane Allyn Piliavin and her colleague, Erica Siegl, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people who were regularly involved in these activities tended to report better physical and mental health. This might be expected: if you are feeling well, you are more likely to have the capacity to help others.
Importantly, however, Piliavin and Siegl found that the apparent benefits remained when they monitored people’s existing fitness. The wellbeing boost took place after they had started their volunteering. They also found evidence of a “dose-dependent relationship”. “Working for three or more types of organisations provided more benefit than working for two, which had more effect than working for one or none,” they concluded. The same relationship could be seen with the duration of their commitment: people who had volunteered for a longer period tended to be better off than those who had started recently.
Later studies have only confirmed these benefits. In 2013, for instance, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University reported that people who volunteered regularly were 40% less likely to develop hypertension over a four-year follow-up, compared with those who did not. A team of researchers at Harvard University, meanwhile, examined the health of nearly 13,000 people aged 50. Those who had started volunteering for an average of two or more hours a week were considerably less likely to experience depressive symptoms over the following four years. They were also less likely to die.
Why would this be? It could be that volunteering increases our overall physical activity: rather than sitting on our sofas, we will have to leave our houses to do our do-gooding. This is certainly true – volunteers do tend to move about more – but some of the studies have found that this cannot fully account for the benefits, suggesting that other mechanisms might be at play.
The answer may come from a growing understanding of the mind-body connection. Volunteering increases the number of people we see and leads us to feel more embedded in our communities. It is now well established that social relationships not only boost our mental health, but also reduce biological risk factors for illness, such as inflammation.
Crucially, altruism and generosity appear to be a particularly potent means of gleaning these benefits, with some research suggesting that helping others can help us to soothe our own stress response. This is counterintuitive. You would expect that an extra responsibility, like volunteering, would add to your sense of burden, rather than relieve it – yet Sae Hwang Han, now an assistant professor in human ecology at the University of Texas at Austin, has shown that the very opposite is true.
To do so, Han and his colleagues turned to data from the US National Study of Daily Experiences, which used telephone interviews to record 1,320 people’s activities and feelings over eight consecutive days. Quite surprisingly, they found that the act of volunteering buffered them from the effects of their life stresses: on the days that they helped others, their mood was less likely to be influenced about their other worries and frustrations – such as work deadlines or disagreements with their partner.
This effect is also evident in objective markers of stress. Han and his colleagues have also analysed levels of the hormone cortisol in participants’ saliva, for instance, which tends to rise when we feel anxious or angry. Among the volunteers, this was significantly less likely to happen – suggesting they were less physiologically reactive to life’s stresses.
The stress-buffering response may have evolved to help us to look after our kith and kin. When we help someone, the brain appears to downregulate the negative feelings that might discourage us from approaching the other person, and prevent us from providing the support they need. This would have enhanced our group’s survival in prehistory, and given the known effects of stress on our mental and physical health, it is easy to see how long-term volunteering could still lead to a longer and happier life in the modern world.
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Today’s individualism may have isolated us from this ancient response. We have been brainwashed by our culture into thinking that all our efforts should be focused on our own self-improvement, when we might all do well to think about how we can be of greater service to others.
If you decide to put this into practice, you may wish to consider the purity of your motives, since selfish intentions may sadly backfire. In one follow-up to the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, participants were asked to explain why they had chosen their charitable activity. Some described pro-social values and an interest in connection – they would endorse statements such as “I feel it is important to help others”, “I feel compassion toward people in need”. Others seemed to be in it for personal gain. They were more likely to agree with statements such as “I can explore my own strengths” or “Volunteering makes me feel needed”.
Replicating the previous findings, the researchers found that volunteers as a whole were less likely to die over the following four years. A deeper analysis, however, showed that this only applied to those who were genuinely motivated to support other people. The volunteers who had acted out of self-interest showed barely any benefit. “Respondents who volunteered for more self-oriented reasons had a similar risk of mortality as non-volunteers,” the study authors concluded.
If you have little interest in others and are only looking for self-improvement, then volunteering clearly isn’t for you. But most people will have some cause that triggers their altruistic instincts, through a genuine desire to help the group in need. If you have the will and the resources, then the new year might be an excellent opportunity to act on those wishes – and enjoy enhanced health and happiness as a welcome side-effect to your beneficence.
David Robson is the author of The Laws of Connection: 13 Social Strategies That Will Transform Your Life, published by Canongate (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
