image: reigh leblanc

My own position on that is very specific, I’ve posted it often and would encourage you to read my book The Mechanics of Happiness – Engineering A Positive Approach to Your Life to understand that perspective in more detail. In my experience, science, something I love and am bewildered by at the same time, gradually catches up with the basic principles of esoteric understanding, mysticism and spiritual teachings and invariably confirms them to be accurate. The obsession with evidence is reasonable given the unfortunate history of information, power, censorship and the erosion of trust this has given rise to.

So here’s something to augment the ‘I knew that already’ category. Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia gave participants $20 each and told half of them to treat themselves to a self indulgent present, and the others to spend their windfall on someone else. Participants who spent the money on someone else were significantly happier than those who treated themselves. Similarly, researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky found that participants who carried out five acts of kindness each week for six weeks (such as writing thank you notes, giving blood or helping a friend) increased their happiness by 40 per cent.

Happiness is, more than anything else, part of a continuum, a process. It is not the object rather the by product of living in a considered and more aware state. Performing acts of selfless giving are the underpinning foundations of a canopy that acts much like an umbrella in deflecting those afflictions that come with a selfish and hedonistic disposition. Meaning? You get more bang for your buck when you do it because it’s the right thing to do rather than having a ‘what’s in it for me?’ attitude.

And, you’ve got to love a scientist, the ‘reason’ for this increased happiness has a brain location too. University of Oregon neuroeconomist William Harbaugh, gave participants $100 in a virtual bank account and asked them to lie in a brain scanner. Participants first saw some of their money being given to help those in need via taxation, and were asked whether they wanted to donate some of their remaining balance to charity or keep it for themselves. The scans revealed that two regions deep within the brain – the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens – became active when participants saw some of their money going to those in need, and were particularly busy when the donation was voluntary. These two regions become active when our most basic needs are met, and here’s the powerful bit, suggesting a direct link between happiness and helping others. It has a direct effect on your brain that consequently makes you feel happier.

So as our scientific evidence catalogue grows, the tenets of the good life find their champions in empirical recording. If you, as an individual, were unconvinced about the case for doing good works where possible then this is more grist to the mill of grinding down the cynical attributes of the age we find ourselves in.

Thanks to Focus magazine for the data.