A study published in an online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides the first laboratory evidence of something many of us have known all along: acts of kindness are contagious. According to the article, when people experience acts of kindness, they “pay it forward” by being kind to others. This creates a cascade of kind acts which influences the behavior of dozens of others. This means kindness is a very powerful act. By performing only a few acts of kindness each day we can positively impact the lives of a fairly large number of people. As Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert put it, “Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
One Sentence Wisdom
- “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” — Mark Twain
- “The miracle of kindness is that it is contagious and something we should all want to pass on and spread to many others.” — Psychology Today
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