Doing good for other people is contagious

Seeing someone do something good for someone else motivates people to perform their own helpful acts, researchers report.

The finding could help drive cooperative behavior in communities navigating through the health crisis.

In their new study, researchers confirmed that people can be heavily influenced by others, especially when it comes to taking on prosocial behavior—actions designed to benefit society as a whole.

Understanding this is important now, when large-scale cooperation and adoption of protective behaviors—wearing face masks and avoiding gatherings—have important implications for the well-being of entire communities, the researchers say.

“Just like the deadly virus, cooperative behavior can also