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March 21, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
06:10
Have Depression? Be Generous!
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All right, so here is something interesting.
So there's a study that just came out a couple of weeks ago.
Generosity functions as an antidepressant.
Depressed people were randomly assigned to give less than a penny a day to charity.
Over the next two months, moods improved and depression declined.
The more they gave, the better they felt.
Even small acts of kindness elevate mental health.
So, here's the abstract.
Pro-social interventions grounded in social interactions have shown limited effectiveness in alleviating depressive symptoms, possibly because of the discomfort and unease that depressed individuals experience during such interactions.
We developed and examined an innovative pro-social intervention, an online micro-charitable giving intervention, in which individuals voluntarily donated at least one Chinese cent, about 0.0014 of a dollar, daily.
We conducted three pre-registered two-months randomized controlled trials with depressed individuals.
Results showed that, compared with the waitlist group, the intervention group exhibited significantly greater improvements in both depressive symptoms and emotional positivity.
Minus 0.19 to minus 0.46.
Emotional positivity went DS 0.22 to 0.49.
Big improvement, right?
More than double.
And that emotional positivity mediated the intervention's effect on the reduction of depressive symptoms.
Exploratory analysis found a slightly larger intervention effect for generous donors than for minimal donors.
This low-cost, easily accessible pro-social intervention holds potential for the prevention of depression.
Now, doesn't that blow your mind?
Just a little, little, little bit.
I hate to be smuggins.
I really do.
My daughter will kill me.
But... There's the link.
Does that not blow your mind a little?
That even tiny acts of generosity have significant effects in lifting depression.
See, as I've sort of talked about for many years, the best way out of unhappiness, I'm not obviously going to use clinical terms because I'm not a clinician in any way, shape or form, but the most reliable and fastest way out of unhappiness is generosity.
I mean, when I ask you to donate, I'm just offering you the chance to be happy.
I mean, that's kind of true.
And this is science.
So generosity breaks the black pill of depression in some way.
I mean, I think there's ways to sort of figure it out.
Again, I'm no psychologist, so this is just amateur musings and ramblings not to be taken particularly seriously.
But even a little bit of generosity says, okay, the world is something to be generous for.
I'm going to be generous because that's a benevolent and positive attitude.
I'm going to help other people.
I'm going to do good things in the world and you feel happier yourself.
And so one of the problems, I think, with depression is the self-absorption and the selfishness.
I'm depressed.
I'm unhappy.
You grab at resources.
You grab at happiness.
You can pull other people down.
Whereas if you break that cycle by being generous towards others, then you can be quite happy.
Because a lot of people will say to me, Steph, how do you stay...
I mean, I get this question every couple of shows.
How do you stay positive?
How do you stay optimistic?
How do you stay happy?
How do you stay happy?
Well, I'm pretty generous and do a lot of good in the world.
I mean, some of it in the show, some of it sort of private, but I'm pretty generous and do a lot of good in the world.
I mean, people can talk to me for hours for free.
No commercials, right?
I put out my shows for free.
My books are all free.
You can get them for free with the exception of Art of the Argument.
Artoftheargument.com.
But yeah, so you can get my novels, books, nonfiction shows.
No ads.
Free. That's pretty generous.
And good for philosophy, good for the world, and maketh me happy.
So if you're unhappy, try to feel or try to figure out where you can be generous.
If you're unhappy, try to figure out where you can be generous.
If you're around a bunch of exploitive people, then generosity is going to be used to tear you in two and exploit you and holler you out and so on, right?
But generosity, and I've made this case before, but I haven't made it for a while, so here we go again.
Generosity is a great filter mechanism.
In my dating, business, personal life, I've always had, since my early 20s, the same rule.
Treat other people you can.
Sorry. Treat other people the best you can the first time you meet them.
After that, treat them as they treat you.
So when I meet people, I'm generous.
You could say to a fault, but it's not a fault, because I get to then find out if I'm generous back.
One of the ways I got out of a lengthy relationship without much of a future was I was very generous to the woman, and then I asked for reciprocity, didn't get it, and I was out.
Done. Gone.
Done. So, on dates, yes, I will pay the first date.
I will pay the first date.
I'm not going to do something super expensive, but I will pay for the first date.
And then I'll see, when I was single, I would see if the woman would be interested in reciprocity.
Now, the reciprocity didn't necessarily mean she had to pay for the second date, but, you know, maybe she could make me dinner or something like that, right?
So, I find if I'm generous with people and then I'm observant as to the reciprocity, things go well.
Things go well.
Be generous.
And then be firm.
Be generous and then be firm with a lack of reciprocity.
And the moment I met a woman who was as generous to me as I was to her, I married her within 11 months.
All right.
My father went half on my first car.
I was working.
The rule of my parents was, I could live there as long as I was either in school or working in saving.
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