Kindness Can Spread Like the Flu

According to an article in the August 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, performing a good deed for someone makes him or her more likely to do something nice for someone else, says researchers at Harvard and the University of California, San Diego.  Their study provides strong evidence that  cooperative behavior spreads from person to person to person, like a benevolent virus. 

In the study, volunteers simulated giving money away to others.  The researchers observed a domino effect, in which one person's kindness spread first to three people, then to nine people, and then to even more people.  What's more, after giving, you become a more generous person who'll give to others more frequently.  Happily, no one's immune to the kindness flu.  "We found that the effect works on Scrooge and Santa personalities alike, says study co-author James H. Fowler, Ph.D., a professor at UC San Diego and expert on social network.