Start giving your money and time away: New research shows you’ll be happier for it. Americans who describe themselves as “very happy” volunteer an average of 5.8 hours per month. Those who are “unhappy”? Just 0.6 hours. This is just one of the findings in The Paradox of Generosity, a new book by sociologists Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson presenting the findings of the Science of Generosity Intiative at Notre Dame. Researchers for the initiative surveyed 2,000 individuals over a five-year period. They interviewed and tracked the spending habits and lifestyles of 40 families from different classes and races in 12 states, even accompanying some to the grocery store.

The result is among the most comprehensive studies of Americans’ giving habits ever conducted. Other findings include lower depression rates among Americans who donate more than 10 percent of their incomes (41 percent say they rarely or never experience depression versus 32 percent for everyone else.) And giving away money isn’t the only way to reap the psychological rewards of generosity: Americans who are very giving in relationships—being emotionally available and hospitable—are much more likely to be in excellent health (48 percent) than those who are not (31 percent).

The following interview with Christian Smith is lightly edited for clarity.

Jordan Michael Smith: How is this different from preceding studies?

Christian Smith: A lot of studies before don’t conceive of themselves as studying generosity. They’re either focused on just volunteering or just financial giving or just giving blood. Our project is trying to see what the connections are between all different forms of generosity and to develop new ideas and measures of generosity that other people haven’t studied before, such as relational generosity. That’s making oneself in one’s relationships available to other people and being giving towards them. We’re trying to understand where generosity comes from, but also what the consequences of generosity are. So this book The Paradox of Generosity is very much focused not just on who gives or why they give but what effect is has on the giver to be generous.



JMS: Your book finds not just a correlation between generosity and happiness but actually a causation. Being generous makes you a person happier and healthier. How do you explain that?



CS: We have a chapter in the book looking at what social scientists call “causal mechanisms.” We found nine different causal mechanisms. It involves everything from developing a sense of self as generous to being more socially networked to being more physically active. We argue that it involves neurochemical changes in the brain, that it gives people more pleasure chemistry in their brain, a sense of reward for having done something good.



We don’t argue it’s one-way. We argue it’s circular. The more happy and healthy and directed one is in life, the more generous one is likely to be, although that’s not guaranteed. It works as an upwards spiral where everything works together, or it works sometimes as a downward spiral if people aren’t generous.