Grant: CIHR New Investigator

Can helping other people improve one's own health? Consistent with this possibility, recent research has demonstrated that individuals who provide help to others exhibit reduced risk of mortality, as well as better overall health. Almost nothing is known, however, about the pathways through which prosocial behavior might influence health. In addition, there is virtually no experimental research in this area due to the challenges associated with assigning people to engage in generous behavior. Providing the opportunity to overcome these limitations, our team has recently developed paradigms that enable us to study prosocial behavior using experimental methodology. Applying these paradigms, we will investigate whether and how prosocial behavior influences biological variables related to health. Because money and time represent the two primary resources that people can give to others, we will examine the health consequences of using money (Study 1) and time (Study 2) to benefit others. Although engaging in prosocial behavior may be beneficial across the life span, there is some evidence that such behavior may be particularly valuable early and late in life. Thus, the proposed research will examine aging adults and university students. In Study 1, an aging sample of participants will be asked to use money in prosocial ways over a period of weeks and their sleep quality, cortisol, and blood pressure will be measured before, during, and after this. In Study 2, a sample of university students will be given the opportunity to use time in prosocial ways over the course of a school year and the impact of this experience on sleep and cortisol will be examined. We will further test whether the biological effects of prosocial behavior are mediated by social and emotional well-being. Thus, the core objective of this research is to illuminate the basic pathways through which helping behavior may "get inside the body" to bolster health.