Give away your money and be happy

Today is clearly altruism day for research findings. Give away your money and be happy - being-human - 20 March 2008 - New Scientist: "'Moving into a bigger house will give you a happiness boost, but you then get used to the house,' says Lyubomirsky. The same goes for other types of possessions. Acts of kindness, by contrast, are more likely to produce unexpected positive outcomes, such as a favour performed in return. Prosocial acts also enhance our self-perception in a way that possessions do not, adds Lyubomirsky." So the significant factor could actually be the renewing of the spending rather than the spend-focus; that is the same dynamic as seems to drive rampant consumerism. Though it would be significant that giving it away does make for happiness. And, actually the research (though with only a limited sample) does seem to indicate altruistic 'spending' may be more happiness-inducing. Good to think about.

Brains: Hardwired To Golden Rule?

I'd have to see more of this but it's intriguing an idea. Brains Are Hardwired To Act According To The Golden Rule: however it is a kind of promo article and the reasoning in this bit isn't encouraging.

"Donald Pfaff, the author of the new book The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule, thinks he has the answer. Our brains, he says, are hardwired to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Individual acts of aggression and evil occur when this circuitry jams. “If it’s really true that all religions have this ethical principle, across continents and across centuries, then it is more likely to have a hardwired scientific basis than if it was just a neighborhood custom,”"

There are a lot of non-sequiturs in that. Perhaps it is a likely outcome of considered reflection? A by-product of being able to think about social consequences and to put observations into some kind of order? Perhaps there is an element of revelation involved? The fact that it needs to be said seems to indicate a degree of it not being innate, I'd have thought. Though I'm happy to think it might be innate but not determinative, that would be easy to reconcile with basic theological ideas in the Christian tradition ...