In Case You Haven't Heard…

Can kindness make you happier than a higher salary? According to the World Happiness Report, released each year on the International Day of Happiness, it can, CNN Health reported March 20. The report is a global analysis on happiness and well‐being in partnership with Gallup, the University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. This year's report paid special attention to acts of benevolence and people's expectations of their communities. The report divided acts of benevolence into three categories: donating money, volunteering and doing a nice thing for a stranger. Based on the data, 70% of the world's population did at least one kind thing in the last month, the report found. “We're not asking people to have unreasonably optimistic (expectations),” said Felix Cheung, Ph.D., the report's coauthor and assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and Canada Research chair in Population Well‐Being. But if you can “develop that trust and you can expect that level of kindness, you will be a lot happier.” Added Ilana Ron‐Levey, a managing director of the public sector at Gallup: “Acts of generosity predict happiness even more than earning a higher salary.” The U.S. ranked No. 24 on this year's list of the happiest countries.