Giving Linked to Longer Life
A featured article from the October 2003 Issue of the
Country Side Living Newsletter

By: M. Greengrass, Monitor on Psychology

If you shovel the snow from your neighbor’s sidewalk in winter, you may be doing yourself the bigger favor, according to a study in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, which suggests that giving support and assistance may be a better predictor of living longer than receiving it.

Researchers at the University of Michigan investigated whether providing social support was beneficial to the provider as well as the recipient. So, Stephanie Brown, PhD., of the university’s Institute for Social Research, and colleagues followed 423 older couples over a five-year period. They found that people who reported providing no instrumental or emotional support to others were more than twice as likely to die in the five years as people who helped spouses, friends, relatives and neighbors. Also, the researchers note, giving to a spouse and giving to friends and neighbors were both independently linked with a lower chance of dying.

“This may be the first study to compare giving and receiving with mortality as an outcome,” Brown says, “no future research is needed to replicate and extend these findings.”

- 30 -

News Main Page