Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34589726›Full record

ArticleBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2021

Kindness and cellular aging: A pre-registered experiment testing the effects of prosocial behavior on telomere length and well-being.

Megan M Fritz, Lisa C Walsh, Steven W Cole, Elissa Epel, Sonja Lyubomirsky

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Untying the Text: Organizational Prosociality and Kindness.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Megan M FritzDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
Lisa C WalshDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
Steven W ColeDepartment of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Elissa EpelDepartment of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sonja LyubomirskyDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveProsocial behavior can improve psychological well-being and physical health. However, the underlying biological mechanisms that mediate the relationship between prosociality and health remain unclear. In this pre-registered experiment, we tested whether a 4-week kindness intervention could slow leukocyte telomere shortening and increase well-being.

methodsCommunity adults (

resultsParticipants who performed kind acts for others did not demonstrate hypothesized changes in well-being, nor in telomere length, relative to controls. Exploratory analyses revealed that, relative to controls, participants who did kind acts for others showed reductions in loneliness through the 2-week follow up.

conclusionsThe salubrious effects of prosocial behavior in the short term are not likely due to the inhibition of cellular aging (at least as indexed by telomere length). However, extending kindness to others holds promise as a future research direction for interventions to alleviate loneliness.

Indexed as

LonelinessProsocial behaviorTelomeresWell-being

Identifiers

PMID34589726
PMCPMC8474583

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.