There is a simple trick to creating happiness in your life, especially in times of chaos and anxiety, and it starts with what you do in other people’s lives.
In January, Americans who feel “very satisfied” with their personal lives hit a new 24-year low. According to a Gallup poll released at the time, 44 percent of Americans said they are “very satisfied” with the way things are going in their personal lives.
“After several challenging years that included the Covid-19 pandemic and persistently high prices, Americans’ extreme satisfaction with their personal lives has fallen to the lowest level in a quarter-century,” Gallup wrote in an analysis. “Political unrest appears to have further depressed satisfaction, especially for Republicans.”
So what can we do in these difficult times? One psychologist turned to Generation Z, who are generally considered those born between 1997 and 2012, to get the answer.
Cornell psychologist Anthony Burrow and his researchers at the university’s Identity Purposes and Processes Laboratory have conducted a six-year project that asks the question: “If someone gave you $400 to make a difference in your community, what would you do with it?”
Over the years, Burrow and his team have selected more than 1,000 high school and college students to receive $400 and use it to add value to themselves and their communities through The Contribution Project.
The preliminary results of the project, which were shared in an article in Washington Post Friday, show that at the beginning of the experiment, those who received the funds and those who did not scored the same on psychological measures, including latent well-being, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of feeling necessary and useful, and affective balance, which is the balance between positive and negative emotions.
But eight weeks later, within the time period recipients have to make their contributions, those who received the funds scored significantly higher than others.
A project by Cornell psychologist Anthony Burrow and his researchers has found that people who received funding to help their communities scored significantly higher on psychological measures (Getty)
Recipients used the funds to pay for hundreds of loads of laundry for community members, donate books to their former high school, plant a tree on campus, and create a mental health resource website.
“I think a lot of people in my generation are like me,” recipient Eric Kohut is quoted in Washington Post. “Inherently, everyone wants to love and be loved. And I think that comes across very often.”
The project’s results have not yet been peer-reviewed or published, but Burrow believes the principle of his experiment can make a difference in people’s lives.
“Invite people to think about a contribution they want to make and help them make that contribution, and that person will be able to walk with a greater purpose than if they had not done so,” he said in a Washington Post article.