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Volunteering Makes People Happier
Do happy people give, or does giving make people happy? Studies that link happiness to generosity sometimes measure only correlations. But this UK study from a few years ago shows that people who volunteer become happier over time as a result of their volunteering, happier enough to be equivalent to an $1,100 extra income each year, on average.
“But does volunteering make people happy, or are happy people simply more likely to volunteer? The researchers found the same results even when they accounted for participants’ initial levels of well-being before they started volunteering. In other words, people who started to volunteer became happier over time.”
How Volunteering Can Help Your Mental Health | Greater Good Science Center
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