Small Act Big Impact

If you can be kind, sprinkle it around like glitter! We are starving for it. “Research suggests, across multiple studies, that people have overwhelmingly similar impulses to not do the nice thing: They underestimate how much other people value the reach-out, the random act of kindness. … If small, kind gestures have a positive impact on the receiver’s day, why are people so hesitant to do them? According to Kumar, who has studied the positive impact of acts of kindness and gratitude letters, we don’t often recognize the power of these benevolent acts on others. Instead of focusing on the warm intention (literally and figuratively) associated with buying a stranger a cup of coffee, we fixate on the value of what we’re presenting. ‘When you’re doing something for someone else, you’re thinking about the thing that you’re giving and what its value is,’ Kumar says. Recipients, on the other hand, are ‘thinking about the warmth associated with the fact that it was given to them by another person out of kindness’” (Allie Volpe, “Small Acts of Kindness Matter More than You Think,” Vox, April 9, 2023, https://www.vox.com/even-better/23670005/small-acts-kindness-matter-liking-gap). Every act of kindness is an act of faith. These small, low-commitment moments can make a difference in someone else’s life as well as our own.