Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux - Have Depression? Be Generous!
Aired: 2025-03-21
Duration: 06:10


=== Generosity As Antidepressant (05:45) ===

[00:00:00]  All right, so here is something interesting.
[00:00:04]  So there's a study that just came out a couple of weeks ago.
[00:00:10]  Generosity functions as an antidepressant.
[00:00:16]  Depressed people were randomly assigned to give less than a penny a day to charity.
[00:00:20]  Over the next two months, moods improved and depression declined.
[00:00:22]  The more they gave, the better they felt.
[00:00:24]  Even small acts of kindness elevate mental health.
[00:00:31]  So, here's the abstract.
[00:00:33]  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.
[00:00:44]  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.
[00:00:59]  We conducted three pre-registered two-months randomized controlled trials with depressed individuals.
[00:01:03]  Results showed that, compared with the waitlist group, the intervention group exhibited significantly greater improvements in both depressive symptoms and emotional positivity.
[00:01:13]  Minus 0.19 to minus 0.46.
[00:01:17]  Emotional positivity went DS 0.22 to 0.49.
[00:01:21]  Big improvement, right?
[00:01:23]  More than double.
[00:01:24]  And that emotional positivity mediated the intervention's effect on the reduction of depressive symptoms.
[00:01:29]  Exploratory analysis found a slightly larger intervention effect for generous donors than for minimal donors.
[00:01:34]  This low-cost, easily accessible pro-social intervention holds potential for the prevention of depression.
[00:01:41]  Now, doesn't that blow your mind?
[00:01:43]  Just a little, little, little bit.
[00:01:45]  I hate to be smuggins.
[00:01:47]  I really do.
[00:01:48]  My daughter will kill me.
[00:01:50]  But... There's the link.
[00:01:56]  Does that not blow your mind a little?
[00:01:59]  That even tiny acts of generosity have significant effects in lifting depression.
[00:02:06]  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.
[00:02:24]  I mean, when I ask you to donate, I'm just offering you the chance to be happy.
[00:02:29]  I mean, that's kind of true.
[00:02:31]  And this is science.
[00:02:36]  So generosity breaks the black pill of depression in some way.
[00:02:42]  I mean, I think there's ways to sort of figure it out.
[00:02:44]  Again, I'm no psychologist, so this is just amateur musings and ramblings not to be taken particularly seriously.
[00:02:50]  But even a little bit of generosity says, okay, the world is something to be generous for.
[00:02:54]  I'm going to be generous because that's a benevolent and positive attitude.
[00:02:57]  I'm going to help other people.
[00:02:58]  I'm going to do good things in the world and you feel happier yourself.
[00:03:03]  And so one of the problems, I think, with depression is the self-absorption and the selfishness.
[00:03:10]  I'm depressed.
[00:03:10]  I'm unhappy.
[00:03:11]  You grab at resources.
[00:03:12]  You grab at happiness.
[00:03:13]  You can pull other people down.
[00:03:15]  Whereas if you break that cycle by being generous towards others, then you can be quite happy.
[00:03:21]  Because a lot of people will say to me, Steph, how do you stay...
[00:03:24]  I mean, I get this question every couple of shows.
[00:03:25]  How do you stay positive?
[00:03:26]  How do you stay optimistic?
[00:03:27]  How do you stay happy?
[00:03:28]  How do you stay happy?
[00:03:29]  Well, I'm pretty generous and do a lot of good in the world.
[00:03:32]  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.
[00:03:37]  I mean, people can talk to me for hours for free.
[00:03:40]  No commercials, right?
[00:03:40]  I put out my shows for free.
[00:03:42]  My books are all free.
[00:03:43]  You can get them for free with the exception of Art of the Argument.
[00:03:46]  Artoftheargument.com.
[00:03:47]  But yeah, so you can get my novels, books, nonfiction shows.
[00:03:52]  No ads.
[00:03:52]  Free. That's pretty generous.
[00:03:55]  And good for philosophy, good for the world, and maketh me happy.
[00:04:01]  So if you're unhappy, try to feel or try to figure out where you can be generous.
[00:04:12]  If you're unhappy, try to figure out where you can be generous.
[00:04:16]  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?
[00:04:23]  But generosity, and I've made this case before, but I haven't made it for a while, so here we go again.
[00:04:29]  Generosity is a great filter mechanism.
[00:04:31]  In my dating, business, personal life, I've always had, since my early 20s, the same rule.
[00:04:38]  Treat other people you can.
[00:04:40]  Sorry. Treat other people the best you can the first time you meet them.
[00:04:43]  After that, treat them as they treat you.
[00:04:45]  So when I meet people, I'm generous.
[00:04:47]  You could say to a fault, but it's not a fault, because I get to then find out if I'm generous back.
[00:04:54]  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.
[00:05:02]  Done. Gone.
[00:05:04]  Done. So, on dates, yes, I will pay the first date.
[00:05:12]  I will pay the first date.
[00:05:13]  I'm not going to do something super expensive, but I will pay for the first date.
[00:05:16]  And then I'll see, when I was single, I would see if the woman would be interested in reciprocity.
[00:05:21]  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?
[00:05:28]  So, I find if I'm generous with people and then I'm observant as to the reciprocity, things go well.
[00:05:36]  Things go well.
[00:05:37]  Be generous.
[00:05:38]  And then be firm.
[00:05:42]  Be generous and then be firm with a lack of reciprocity.

=== The Generosity That Led To Marriage (00:24) ===

[00:05:45]  And the moment I met a woman who was as generous to me as I was to her, I married her within 11 months.
[00:05:57]  All right.
[00:06:02]  My father went half on my first car.
[00:06:05]  I was working.
[00:06:05]  The rule of my parents was, I could live there as long as I was either in school or working in saving.