In many conversations, happiness is confused with the amount of the pay slip. We rely on the next bonus or increase to reduce stress. But the last
World Happiness Reportpublished with Gallup and the University of Oxford, tells a slightly different story.
This 2025 edition focused closely on acts of kindness, trust in others and their link with life satisfaction. And the conclusion shakes up our intuitions: according to Ilana Ron-Levey, director at Gallup, “acts of generosity predict higher level of happiness than higher salary“Enough to review your priorities.
Kindness, more predictive of happiness than salary
The report distinguishes three major acts of kindness: giving money, volunteering, doing a service to a stranger. According to the data, almost 70% of people on the planet performed at least one of these acts in the previous month, a figure that psychologist Felix Cheung describes as very high.
The researchers also concretely tested the effect of
kindness. In several studies, they offer between $2 and $5 (around €1.80 to €4.60) to volunteers, to spend either on themselves or on someone else. Those who choose to please others then report more happiness, a result confirmed by a study published in 2008 in the journal Science : for the same amount, giving makes you more joyful than keeping for yourself.
Kindness, trust and the “empathy gap”: what psychology sees
For Lara Aknin, professor of social psychology and editor of the report, the contrast between perception and reality is striking. “Even though the world feels like a pretty tough place right now, it’s nice to know that people are performing acts of kindness and generosity“.
In experiments where wallets are intentionally “lost”, many people think that a stranger will not return them, when in practice more than half return. This discrepancy, which researchers call the “empathy gap”, weighs on trust.
The consequences are very concrete. “If we assume the worst of others, it shapes the way we interact with the world. If we expect the worst from others, we walk in the world in fear, and that matters to our own well-being.”explains Lara Aknin.
She observes that when people dare to take small social risks, they often discover more kindness than expected and re-evaluate their view of others.
Daily acts of kindness, social time rather than salary
Last important signal, the quality of links on a daily basis. For Lara Aknin, “social time is really crucial, and that face-to-face contact can go a long way.”
Ilana Ron-Levey observes that one in four people in the United States ate all their meals alone the day before, a habit associated with lower well-being. Where meals, mutual support and proximity remain strong, such as in the Nordic countries, average happiness levels remain at the top of the global rankings.