When it comes to social support, it seems better to give than to receive. Researchers who studied more than 400 older married couples found that those who said they provided emotional support to their spouses or practical support such as transportation and child care to friends and relatives, reduced their chances of dying by between 40 and 60 percent in a five-year period. Receiving support, on average, had no effect on subjects’ rate of death.
Lead author Stephanie Brown, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, says the effect of altruistic acts was surprisingly powerful. Most research in the past has focused on whether receiving support is beneficial, she says.
A possible explanation is that the positive emotions that accompany giving could support cardiovascular health, as previous studies have shown. Brown also speculates that there could be an as yet unidentified evolutionary advantage attached to helping others.
