Generosity

A news story going viral is about Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, who told his employees that he intends to raise the salary of every employee to $70,000 over the next three years. He is cutting his own salary of nearly $1 million down to $70,000 and using company profits to pay for their increases.

He was moved to this act of generosity after learning of Angus Deaton’s & Daniel Kahneman’s, study about happiness. They researched emotional well-being, which refers to the frequency and intensity of experiences that make one’s life pleasant or unpleasant. Income above the threshold doesn’t buy happiness, but a lack of money can deprive you of happiness. Emotional well-being rises with income, but not past an annual income of $75,000. Low income increases the emotional pain of misfortunes and stressors such as divorce, poor health, and loneliness.

While watching the TV segment of Mr. Price telling his employees of his decision, and hearing the cheers among the employees, I noticed that I had goose bumps on my arms and tears in my eyes. I was deeply moved by his generosity and experienced a sense of emotional well-being just by learning of their good fortune. Generosity has benefits for the giver, the receiver, and the observer.

Generosity has mental and physical benefits. It is linked with lower stress, increased happiness and higher success rates. It is a key factor in marital satisfaction. Unselfishness is linked with an increased life span. Volunteering and social connection is linked with decreased depression.

Why are some people more generous than others? According to Paul J. Zak, biochemistry has something to do with it – specifically oxytocin, a hormone that promotes social bonding. He identified the brain processes, involving oxytocin, that increases behavior traits such as trustworthiness, generosity and sacrifice. For example, he gave participants doses of oxytocin to some participants and a placebo to others in a study designed to measure financial generosity. Those given oxytocin offered 80% more money than the participants who were give a placebo.

Oxytocin promotes empathy, but when the chemical is inhibited in someone, they are more likely to have selfish behavior. Zak had his study participants view a video of a two-year-old boy who is dying of cancer. He then measured their oxytocin levels and found an increase by an average of 47 percent in the blood of viewers. But one viewer’s oxytocin was only raised by 9 percent. That person had higher levels of DHT, a version of testosterone which blocked the oxytocin.

Bill Harbaugh, economist, also studied generosity through charitable giving. He found that people experience a release of dopamine when giving. Dopamine releases feel good chemicals in the brain. His study showed that giving to charity is similar to ingesting an addictive drug or learning you’ve received a winning lottery ticket. People give to charity not only because they think it’s a good thing to do but also because giving makes them feel good. But not everyone has the same level of activity in the brain, and not everyone experiences the same level of satisfaction in giving.

So what was going on with me when I was moved to tears? Perhaps I, as an observer, experienced a rise in oxytocin or dopamine causing a pleasurable and rewarding sensation. I was not the giver, or the receiver of Dan Price’s great generosity. But I surely benefitted from hearing of it.