Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Ripples of kindness

"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 baby is then presented with the two bunnies. Eighty percent of the time, the one-year baby chooses the helpful puppet (bunny or other character) over the mean and unhelpful one. Among three-month-olds, the percentage rises to 87 percent. 
 

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"

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