Elizabeth Dunn
| Expert on how helping others increases happiness
About
Elizabeth Dunn is a professional speaker at Duke University who explores the science of happiness through helping behaviors. Her research examines how the way we give to others directly impacts our own well-being, revealing that the method and manner of helping matters as much as the act itself.
Dunn has shared her insights on major platforms including TED 2019, where she presented on the nuanced relationship between altruism and personal happiness. Her work challenges conventional assumptions about generosity, demonstrating that not all forms of helping produce the same psychological benefits for the giver.
What Elizabeth Talks About
The science behind why helping others increases personal happiness
How the method of giving affects well-being outcomes
Evidence-based strategies for prosocial behavior that benefits both giver and receiver
The psychology of generosity and its impact on life satisfaction
Talks1
Helping others makes us happier -- but it matters how we do it
Research shows that helping others makes us happier. But in her groundbreaking work on generosity and joy, social psychologist Elizabeth Dunn found that there's a catch: it matters how we help. Learn how we can make a greater impact -- and boost our own happiness along the way -- if we make one key shift in how we help others. "Let's stop thinking about giving as just this moral obligation and start thinking of it as a source of pleasure," Dunn says.
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