Giving makes you happy.
According to several scientific studies, being generous with others increases the happiness and satisfaction of individuals, especially when the donation is intended for people in need.
The explanations of the health consultant of Europe 1, Doctor Jimmy Mohamed.
What if giving to others - time, money, goods - made us happier?
This is what several studies on happiness and generosity have found, deciphered by Jimmy Mohamed, the health consultant of Europe 1 in the program "Without appointment".
The donation activates certain areas of the brain, in particular that of happiness and pleasure.
The power of giving, material or not, has a positive impact on the human being.
So no more excuses: let's give!
A scientifically proven effect
Among the studies devoted to this subject, one of them was to give students five dollars for five days, explains Jimmy Mohamed.
They could spend the money on themselves or give it to someone in need.
When deciding, subjects were given a brain MRI and completed a happiness satisfaction questionnaire.
Doctors realized that several areas of the brain were activated among those who preferred to give to others, especially those of generosity but also of happiness.
Conversely, the structures responsible for the anxiety, stored in the amygdala, were extinguished.
The level of happiness and satisfaction of the most generous subjects was higher than the others.
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On the same principle, a Swiss study published in 2017 in the journal
Nature Communications
had concluded similar results after an experiment on 50 people for four weeks.
A source of limitless happiness
"Give what you want according to your means and the needs of some", explains doctor Jimmy Mohamed.
The feeling of happiness is intensified when the person being helped directly is in need: relatives, homeless, etc.
"Happiness will be a little higher than when you give money to a charity", underlines the health consultant of Europe 1. "But that does not mean that there is no happiness" in this second case.
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And the most interesting is that this source of happiness does not run out, unlike the pleasure of receiving.
"When you are given a gift, you are happy. So imagine the gifts every day", continues Jimmy Mohamed.
"After a while you get a little jaded."
This effect is called "hedonic effect", it is the exhaustion of happiness, of this dopamine.
But ... that does not exist in the gift.
"Generosity never runs out. The structures responsible for happiness will always activate in our brain when we give something", assures the doctor.
In the face of generosity, brains are not equal.
That of women is more sensitive to sharing, while in men the pleasure circuit is also activated when they do actions for themselves.
“It's not something that is innate, but acquired,” explains Jimmy Mohamed.
In childhood, girls were thus conditioned to give more, while boys were taught to be more selfish.
An educational change at this level could ultimately make society better.