"There
is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world." ~Mary
Anne Radmacher, American writer and artist
"A kind word is
like a Spring day." ~Russian Proverb
This month’s 1st Wednesday wellness, with a
focus on kindness, takes a look at some research that gives me a little lift. The
first two studies below reveal that even babies have an accurate sense of what’s
happening around them: of behaviors that are kind or not, or of who might be a
friend or not. The last section asserts that adults who merely
witness kindness experience elation.
The first study, published in 2010, concluded that humans have a rudimentary moral sense from
the very start of life that possibly allows them to judge the actions of others (i.e., as good
or bad, kind or unkind).
A research team at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center conducted a series of
experiments over eight years.
The most basic of these experiments involved showing a baby examples of good
and bad behavior with puppets or objects (same scenario repeated 6 to 14 times)
and observing which behavior the baby preferred. [If you're curious to see how they did this work with babies, watch this 5-min video.]
In
the experiment, a puppet is seen trying to open a plastic box. The puppet tries
repeatedly, but he just can't open the lid all the way. Then, a bunny puppet comes
along and helps open the box. That is followed by a different bunny puppet slamming
the box before running away.
The second study is not specifically on kindness, yet is still
fascinating in its revelation that infants form positive or negative
associations about people and actions. Even before babies have language skills
or much information about social structures, they can infer whether other
people are likely to be friends or foes by observing their likes and dislikes.
In a 2013 study, done by U Chicago researchers and
written about here at Science Daily, 64 nine-month-old infants were randomized into groups to
watch videos showing two adults. The adults each ate two foods and reacted in
either a positive or a negative way to each food they ate. In some videos the
adults shared the same reactions (both liked the food, or both did not), while
in others they reacted differently (one liked a particular food, the other did
not).
A second round of videos focused on social interaction.
In these, the same adults greeted each other in a friendly way, or crossed arms
and turned their backs to each other, with an unfriendly "HMPH."
The researchers assessed the babies' reactions to the
videos by how long they gazed at a still screen at the end of each one. It's
known that when babies see something unexpected, they look longer, as they try
to make sense of it. The infants' responses suggested that they were surprised when adults who liked the same foods reacted
negatively toward each other, and when adults who disagreed about the foods
behaved like friends.
The researchers’ suggest that this is some of the first
evidence that young infants are making inferences about the social interactions
in the world around them. See more at this NSF Discovery File or read the article.
"When I was young,
I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people." ~Abraham
Joshua Heschel
By
the time we’re adults there's been myriad of opportunities to observe the social
world, and we've all learned that kindness is greatly preferable to unkindness. Good feelings come
from both giving and receiving kindness. Possibly less obvious though is that merely
witnessing kind actions is a “peak experience” that is beneficial to our
body along with our psyche and spirit.
In this Psychology Today article, researcher and social psychologist/professor Jonathan Haidt,
calls the
witnessing of kind actions ‘elation’ and describes it as a “warm feeling
in the
chest, a sensation of expansion in [the] heart, an increased desire to
help,
and increased sense of connection with others…Elation seems to have a
ripple
effect, triggering cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes...It
makes people more open, more loving, grateful, compassionate,
and forgiving." Research by Haidt and Chris Oveis shows that this
'elation' feeling
acts on the vagus nerve, which regulates heart rate. They found that "when people watching a
video of an 11-year-old boy who helps the homeless said they felt a warm glow
in the chest, there was a corresponding change in heart rhythms, in a way that
has been associated with good health."
Kindness transcends the separateness we often experience
as human beings."It connects us to one another, brings a renewed faith
in human nature, reminds us of the goodness which human beings are often
capable."
"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." ~Samuel
Johnson
Maybe especially this month, while still enduring the northern cold of which many of us are weary, we can warm up
our moments by collectively seeking out friends, and keenly watching for kindness.
May you
enjoy the ripple effect of being, receiving, or witnessing anything kind and
good.
"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." ~Ephesians 4:32
"Kindness, like a
boomerang, always returns." ~Author Unknown
"A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice
person." ~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to
Learn"
