The Neuroscience of Giving: How Generosity Affects Our Brains During the Holidays

If you’ve ever watched Gilmore Girls, you’ve likely noticed how often characters engage in small acts of kindness, whether it’s Lorelai bringing Rory coffee before school or Luke helping out Lorelai around her house. These moments of generosity feel good to witness, but it turns out that they’re not just heartwarming; they’re backed by science. In fact, neuroscience has shown that generosity can actually improve our brains and help us study more effectively.

The Brain on Giving
When we give a donation, a favor, a selfless act, our brain releases a cocktail of feel-good chemicals. These “feel-good” hormones commonly referred to are dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Dopamine is associated with pleasure and reward; serotonin regulates mood; oxytocin is sometimes called the “love hormone” because it facilitates bonding and trust. These chemicals not only make us feel good at the moment but can help improve our focus, reduce stress, and even enhance our cognitive abilities.

Research supports this idea. Studies have shown that prosocial behavior, such as donating or helping others, triggers the same reward centers in the brain as receiving a gift. This means that giving can be just as satisfying as receiving. For students, this increase in mood and reward makes the task of studying much less daunting. It makes complete, when you are in higher spirits, your brain is more open to information, helping you learn and retain it more easily.

How Giving Helps Us Study
But what does this have to do with studying? Surprisingly enough, research has shown that performing acts of kindness helps improve cognitive function (Mathers, 2016). When we help others, we lessen our mental stress and turn on the brain’s reward systems; this makes us more focused, motivated, and even better at retaining information. A study shows that volunteers who engaged in altruistic acts-like helping a friend or donating to charity-reported higher levels of happiness and lower levels of anxiety. Consequently, they also did better in cognitive tasks, such as problem-solving and memory retention (Kahana et al., 2013).

Now, imagine this scenario: you’ve got a huge exam coming up, and the stress is making it hard to focus. Instead of stressing alone, you decide to help a classmate by reviewing notes together or explaining a topic. On top of helping out your friend, you also just activated the reward system in your brain, improving your mood and calming the anxiety that prevents you from concentrating. This sense of connection and reward can ultimately make studying feel less daunting, and it can even help you grasp more difficult concepts.

Ways to Give Back to Others This Holiday Season

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When we think of giving gifts to others, we often focus on presents with monetary value associated with them. But there are a multitude of ways to express your generosity! You can provide your time, resources, assistance or presence to help someone else. Here are some student budget friendly ways to give to others this holiday season:

• Volunteering for an organization that you are passionate about
• Donating old clothing
• Small acts of kindness, such as holding the door open for someone or complimenting someone
• Expressing your appreciation for someone in your life
• Buying a small gift card for someone
• Paying for the person behind you in line at a coffee shop
• Tutoring someone or explaining a concept to a friend in need
• Shovelling snow for a neighbour

Closing Remarks

The next time you are feeling low on motivation or struggling to get through a study session, think about performing an act of kindness for someone else! Not only are generous acts mutually beneficial to the actor and recipient, but they also assist with making our studying more efficient and effective. Acts of kindness do not necessarily have to be extravagant or expensive — sometimes your presence and support is more than enough to make someone’s day. Never underestimate the power of kindness!

References

Kahana, E., Bhatta, T., Lovegreen, L. D., Kahana, B., & Midlarsky, E. (2013). Altruism, helping, and

volunteering. Journal of Aging and Health, 25(1), 159–187.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264312469665

Mathers, N. (2016). Compassion and the science of kindness: Harvard davis lecture 2015. British

Journal of General Practice, 66(648). https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp16x686041