Author: Words by
Jonathan Lovett / Source: Positive News
A new wave of organisations has sprung up, promoting small pro-social and pro-environmental actions. But do these acts make any difference?
“I recently posted a letter to a friend. Hardly earth-shattering news but it was unusual because I’ve never sent him a letter before.
We communicate via text and social media and occasionally we even see each other in the flesh.But I was inspired by new pro-social website Good and Kind, which lists ‘Send a nice letter to a friend’ as one of 100 ways to make the world a kinder place. Following similarly altruistic enterprises such as Action for Happiness and The Kindness Offensive, the site encourages people to perform acts of kindness – from signing up to the organ donor register to sending someone a virtual hug.
“Little things that people do can have a bigger impact on society,” says founder Kelly Hunstone. “Many people tell us they feel, as an individual, that it’s very hard for them to make a difference in the world. So we wanted to show how, even if it’s just a little thing, collectively your effort can bring about positive social change.”
To help persuade folk, each act has a 1-5 ‘happiness rating’ and even an eye-catching ‘cost benefit to society’ based on Good and Kind’s research. Sending that letter to a friend comes in at £44.44, I’m told, while some acts are described as ‘priceless’.
We wanted to show how, even if it’s just a little thing, collectively your effort can bring about positive social change
Do people need an economic incentive to do good? “I would like to think not but when we did the research we found that some people would do it out of the goodness of their heart, while others would want to see if there is any real purpose or benefit,” says Hunstone.
Good and Kind comes from a good place, and posting that letter put a spring in my step, but it seemed to have a negligible effect on my mate. When I next spoke to him on the phone he said receiving the letter was a bit “strange” and he wondered why I bothered.
It did get me thinking that my time would have been far better spent writing to my MP about climate change or lobbying my local shop, saying that unless they include more sustainable options I’ll be withdrawing my business.
Turning to Mark Williamson, director of the social movement Action for Happiness, I wondered if small acts are well-meaning but really a little lightweight. Could they actually stop people from making more profound, effective change in the world?
“I don’t think random acts of kindness will, in themselves, solve all our problems,” he says. “What you might call tokenistic acts in your day-to-day life are not going to solve climate change. But they do two important things: firstly, it’s a direction of travel towards wider change and two, they have a contagious effect. So when we carry out acts of kindness, other people see them and it sparks more kindness. If, for example, I’m friendly to the bus driver he’s more likely to be considerate to the next customer who’s more likely then to go home and have a positive conversation with their partner.”
Williamson also thinks people who do small things to spread happiness are more likely to take action in other, ‘bigger’ pro-social ways too. “So rather than these small acts undermining bigger social change, they actually help to support and encourage it,” he says.
Action for Happiness focuses on what we can do personally and collectively to make a difference – such as organise a street party where we live or volunteer…
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