Be Jolly This Holiday Season by Helping Others

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – It’s the holiday season, which means peace on earth and good will to all. Or at least it should. Of course, there are those Grinches out there who aren’t really in a good mood for the holiday. According to scientists from Yale, you can easily be jolly this holiday season by helping others.

Researchers from the University of Yale decided to look into a way to get rid of the stress usually accumulated during the holidays. And wouldn’t you know it, the answer is basically what we’re supposed to do during the holidays anyway.

Study author Emily Ansell, says that the research shows that by helping others, we can also help ourselves. And the Ph. D. has, of course, done the science to prove it.

The study employed a sample of 77 subjects, aged 18 to 44, without any history of mental illness, cognitive impairment, or substance abuse.

The participants used their smartphones to answer a survey every night for two weeks, related to their daily experiences.

After reporting any stressful event that occurred during the day, as well as any positive behavior of assistance they got involved in, the subjects were asked to fill a short survey of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale.

The survey is largely used in the psychological community and known from providing accurate results. They were then asked to rate their emotional and mental levels on a 0-100 scale.

The scientists reported that the consistency of the results was quite surprising.

Results came in confirming the study’s premise.

Those participants who engaged in multiple acts of kindness throughout the day reported much lower stress levels than those who did not, despite the frequency of daily stressful events.

To keep in tune with the previous result, it was also made obvious to the scientists that those participants who got involved in the least amount of nice things during the day reported a much higher stress level than the other subjects, despite lower numbers of stressful events.

The researchers want to look further into the subject, as they want to see if the results hold in other types of cultures.

Not only that, but they are looking to see if prescribing good deeds to patients can be actually used as a therapeutic exercise, since the results showed such promise.

So remember, do good deeds this holiday season, and scientists guarantee that you will feel better as well. Unless you’re mugged. In that case, you didn’t read this here.

Image source: Flickr