Received kindness makes recipients more likely to help others

Evidence

Finally, careful studies have shown that (with other social and personality traits held constant) people who have received help are themselves more likely to help others, so that simple acts of kindness have a ripple effect. In short, giving, volunteering, and joining are mutually reinforcing and habit-forming—as Tocqueville put it, “the habits of the heart.” — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 400

Categorization

• XREF: Ripple-effect finding supports the thesis that small acts of decency multiply outward. — connects to: Watching others give help makes disaster survivors give help themselves via expected reciprocity. — John Drury and Rupert Brown and Roberto González and Daniel Miranda, Emergent social identity and observing…, 6; Even a brief hallway greeting measurably increases later helpfulness toward a stranger. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 2672; Reciprocity to an unmatchable gift means gifting forward to future unknowns — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 238