Science Confirms The Obvious: Being Nice Helps You Make Friends
The ButterCream Gang Feature Films For FamiliesA new study finds that kids really do like other kids who are nice. After conducting a month-long study with several hundred Canadian tweens, researchers have arrived at the conclusion that permeates every after-school special you've ever been bored enough to watch: being nice makes people like you. To investigate how kindness affects kids' happiness and social standing, researchers organized a controlled study with 415 9-11 year-olds in Vancouver, British Columbia: Every week over the course of 4 weeks, students...were instructed either to perform 3 acts of kindness (for anyone they wish) or visit 3 places (anywhere they wish). Throughout the 4-week intervention, students in both conditions reported what they did each week on in-class surveys. Examples of kind acts included "gave my mom a hug when she was stressed by her job," "gave someone some of my lunch," and "vacuumed the floor." Examples of...