How Other People's Good Deeds Make YOU a Better Person

Did you just read "Mikey's Goal" or "Beliefnet Users' Favorite Acts of Kindness"? If so, it's likely you're an even better person than you were 10 minutes ago. That's according to research by Dr. Jonathan Haidt, winner of this year's Templeton Positive Psychology Prize.

According to Dr. Haidt, witnessing--even reading about--acts of kindness, heroism, or moral beauty produces an emotion called "elevation." Elevation has been noted in different cultures around the world and often manifests itself as "a feeling in the chest, especially warm, pleasant, or tingling." It also has a motivating effect: People who have experienced elevation report "wanting to help others, to become better people themselves, and to affiliate with others" who are also doing good.

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For example, Dr. Haidt tells the story of one of his subjects who was riding home in a car with three other friends on a snowy night. She says, "As we were driving, I saw an elderly woman with a shovel in her driveway. I did not think much of it when one of the guys in the back asked the driver to let him off here. [She assumed this was near his home.] But when I saw him jump out of the back seat and approach the lady, my mouth dropped in shock as I realized he was offering to shovel her walk for her."

When asked how this made her feel, she said, "I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running, or skipping and laughing...I felt like saying nice things about people...and, though I'd never seen this guy as more than a friend, I felt a hint of romantic feeling for him at this moment."

In other words, witnessing this good deed fostered love, admiration, and a desire for a closer affiliation with the doer of the good deed.

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