Last month I reported the positive news that people really do like to help others. I figured it would be best to focus on the kind behavior seen even in the most troubling times of tensions here in Minneapolis and around the world.
Since then the coronavirus flared up across the USA. Despite this, many Americans remain adamant against wearing masks, even though this would be kind to their fellow citizens.
I get it—no one likes to be told what to do and the face coverings create a lot of hot and bother. My approach, being committed to kindness, is to always wear a mask in public indoor spaces while steering clear of anyone going without one, choosing times and stores that provide plenty of maneuvering room.
Two books coming out this month provide some hope that mask-averse people may come around to kindly covering up on Covid-19: Survival of the Friendliest and The Kindness of Strangers. They generated a buzz for kindness that got amplified by the Associated Press last week in their report on Not so random acts: Science finds that being kind pays off.
“Doing kindness makes you happier and being happier makes you do kind acts.”
Economist Richard Layard
For those of you who seek data on why people are kind or unkind, check out Oliver Scott Curry’s Kindlab. I love the graphic showing the scientist measuring the height of the “K: Check it out for laughs! Then follow the link to “doing a kind act has a significant effect on well-being” for results gleaned from 27 experimental studies.
There are some caveats, however. The effects reported by Curry et al are small. Also, the individual studies tend to be underpowered—averaging only about a third of the number of subjects needed to detect effects of interest.
Furthermore, it’s clear from Kindlab and other sources (for example, my prior blog noted at the outset of this post), that many people lack a motivation to be kind.
For example, a twenty-something bar-hopper is very unlikely to wear an unfashionable, drink-inhibiting mask. Why bother to protect his or her peers from a disease that probably won’t kill them anyways (never mind the grandparents).
How can this dangerously unkind behavior be turned around?