Kindness, it seems, is the superpower of happiness. A recent study showed that when people were asked to conduct five new acts of kindness on one day per week over a six-week period (even if each act was small), they experienced a big increase in well-being. Kindness will not only impact our well being but also lead to a virtuous circle - happiness makes us give more, and giving makes us happier, which leads to a greater tendency to give and so an upward spiral continues.

Generally, there are strong associations between happiness and helping others. Firstly, happiness helps helping. Happy people are more likely to be interested in or be inclined towards helping others. They are more likely to have recently performed acts of kindness or spent a greater percentage of their time or money helping others. Volunteering is also related to increased happiness irrespective of the socio-economic situation of the volunteer. People who give a proportion of their monthly income to charitable causes or spent it on gifts for others were found to be happier than people who did not spend on others, and this was regardless of income level.