Friday, July 25, 2003
Altruism shines through in survey of good deeds
On average, Americans do at least 109 good deeds every year, according to the results of a new study to be released today by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
The study, called "Altruism in Contemporary America," which surveyed 1,366 people in person across the nation over the last two years, also found that whether you are a man or a woman, rich or poor, a city dweller or a country bumpkin, liberal or conservative, black, white, or brown, it seems to have little or no bearing on how altruistic you are.
What does matter, surveyors found, is how religious you consider yourself to be, how often you go to church, synagogue, mosque or temple, and how often you pray.
Surveyors defined altruism as behavior "motivated mainly out of a consideration for another's needs rather than one's own'' and asked people if they had done any of 15 specific good deeds.
It certainly doesn't take faith to be altruistic, but apparently it helps.
While people who never attend church said they performed, on average, 96 acts of kindness annually, people who attend church at least weekly if not more often report 128 good deeds every year, the study found.
People who pray at least once a week reported they performed nearly twice as many altruistic acts as those who said they never pray. And those who said they pray multiple times a day also did three times as many acts of kindness as those who don't pray, ever.
Folks who told surveyors that they considered their religiousness to be "strong" reported 128.6 altruistic acts annually. Those who said they had "no religion" reported 97.5 good deeds each year.
"The specific denomination or religion you follow doesn't make a difference" in terms of how altruistic you are, said Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey of the research center.
"Among the central teachings of all the major religions are basically altruistic values. Giving alms to the poor is one of the five pillars of Islam. 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' and other Christian precepts. The admonition to do good deeds is central to Judaism."
"It's apparent that those who are active in those faiths have heard the message," Smith said.
The kind of "altruistic deeds" surveyors asked people about were not the kind of things about which journalists write news stories. They're not a big deal. At least not on the surface. But they are the kinds of random acts of kindness that make the world more livable as people "pay it forward," if you will.
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