Acts of Kindness in a student sample

This is a study of the relationship between happiness exercises, positive experiences, and emotion. The aim of this study is to examine the efficacy of three variants of the Acts of Kindness intervention in a large student sample on mental well-being and positive relations. Second year students from the University of Twente will be asked to complete three longer online questionnaires (20 to 30 minutes) and three short online questionnaires (about 5 to 10 minutes). Studends are also asked to follow through on instructions for happiness exercises designed to increase their well-being each week for 4 weeks. The study will be completed entirely over the Internet.

1) How effective is being kind to other people in general compared to being kind to family/friends or being kind to strangers on the level of mental well-being?

2) How effective are the three variants of acts of kindness on improving positive relations, positive emotions, optimism and gratitude?

3) How effective are the three variants of acts of kindness on reducing negative emotions, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms and perceived stress?

4) Are the effects of the intervention mediated by positive emotions and/or positive relations?

T0 - baseline

T1 - short survey for mediation analyses

T2 - short survey for mediation analyses

T3 - short survey for mediation analyses

T4 - post-test

T5 - one month follow-up

After the introduction lecture, each second year student receives an email with an online informed consent form and - if completed - an invitation for completing the baseline questionnaire. After a few days, randomization will take place to allocate the students randomly to one of the three groups. Each group receives similar instructions for the Acts of Kindness intervention:

"Within the next five days, you pick one day as your kindness day. On this day, you are to perform five nice things for others, all five in one day. These acts of kindness do not need to be for the same person, the person may or may not be aware of the act, and the act may or may not be similar to the acts listed above. The day after your kindness day, we ask you to report what nice things you chose to perform."



The only difference between the three conditions is that the instruction is given about doing nice things for others (and give examples of things for family, friends and strangers), doing nice things for family or friends (including examples of
them) or doing nice things for strangers including examples of them). The students receive these instructions once a week, during 4 weeks. When it is possible to allocate at least 60 students per condition, we might add a fourth condition wherein the students are instructed to do nice things for themselves (active control condition).