Help kids feel the “warm glow of giving”

© 2020-2024 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Are little kids hopelessly selfish? Many people assume so. But scientific research suggests otherwise. Like adults, children experience the warm glow of giving, and it’s a motivating force for good. How early in life do children feel this warm glow, and what can we do to nurture it — and encourage kids to share?

Psychologists call it “the warm glow of giving,” and it’s a well-documented phenomenon among adults. In fact, neuroscientists have tracked it in the brain. When we engage in acts of altruistic giving — helping others at a cost to ourselves — we experienced heightened activity in the brain’s reward centers (Filkowski et al 2016). And what’s interesting about giving is that we don’t become habituated to its effects — not easily.