Why giving the right Christmas present can make you feel good – there’s a science behind it
- Experiments show the ‘joy of giving’ has a biological basis in the brain, with altruism hard-wired in humans to give a pleasurable sensation
- People’s happiness is greater when they spend more on others
You know that deep, warm feeling that strikes you when you realise you’ve bought precisely the right gift for a person? When they open it with delight, and you get that real good, gift-giving feeling? That isn’t just born of the smug glow of getting it right. There’s a science behind it.
Experiments show evidence that the “joy of giving” has a biological basis in the brain, according to Jenny Santi, founder of Saint Partners Philanthropy Services and author of The Giving Way to Happiness.
“Altruism is hard-wired in the brain and is pleasurable,” she says. “We now know that when we give, two brain reward systems work together: the midbrain VTA [ventral tegumental area ], which is the same part stimulated by food and sex, as well as the subgenual area, which is the area stimulated when humans see babies and romantic partners.
“Research from Carnegie Mellon University [also] shows that volunteering – that is giving – for at least 200 hours per year, dramatically lowers blood pressure in older adults. High blood pressure, or hypertension, triggers a chain reaction in adults that often leads to morbidity due to cardiovascular conditions.”
Hong Kong psychologist Scarlett Mattoli from The Psynamo Group agrees that “selecting, preparing and giving gifts for others can light up our mesolimbic dopamine reward pathway, which supports motivation, reward, and learning”.