According to scientists, kindness is the desire to ease someone else's pain by being aware of it. Right now, compassion is more than just understanding. It's an emotional response.
Compassion is more than just knowing someone else's pain; it also means trying to ease it. On top of that, we have feelings, like anger at the things and people that hurt us.
But kindness doesn't mean feeling sorry for the other person and making yourself feel better by finding short-term ways to deal with your own problems. Giving money to a beggar is not a sign of kindness.
Being compassionate means listening to the beggar's problems and trying to find a long-term answer.
Seeing events as a whole makes us care about other people. Finally, we can do something. Paul Zak, a neuroeconomist, plans an experiment to show how stories change the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone that makes our bonds stronger when we care about, love, trust, and are close to each other.
The pupils who are taking part are split into two groups by our researcher. One group watches a movie about a dad who has to figure out how to bond with his sick child while also taking care of himself.
This video is mostly about a father who is having a hard time connecting with his child who has recently died and enjoying the last moments they spend together.
By the end of the movie, the father has found the guts and strength to stay with his dying son until the end. While his son is dying, the father continues to love and care for him, no matter how much pain he is in.
There's no doubt that this video will make you feel very strongly. This group doesn't see a dramatic film, though. Instead, they see a day at the zoo with a father and son. The first story is powerful and moving, but the second one feels more like a documentary.
Paul Zak checks the amount of oxytocin in the people who watched the first video before and after watching it. He then shows how this changes the level of kindness. Because of this, a 47% rise is seen in this group.
People who watch this video are more likely to give to cancer charities because of this hormone.