Everybody enjoys acts of kindness. But can you explain why? Some people think kindness is something out of love and care, while others believe it is just a tool that we use to become more popular. But research shows that being kind can activate （激活）an area of the brain called Striatum. Research also shows that kindness improves people's mood （情绪）. But why and how does it happen? Here are a number of different ways.
Being kind can make someone smile. If you see yourself smile in a situation, people around may be smiling, too. This is especially true for your close friends and family. A kind act makes someone who is sad feel better.Itcan also make ourselves feel good. So why not set off that chain（链条）of good feelings to people around?
Secondly, being kind starts or develops a social connection with others. Kind acts like buying someone a present make friendships stronger. Research has shown that spending money on others may help you get a stronger feeling of happiness than spending it on yourself. Similarly, charities（慈善）also open up new circles of people to connect with someone on the other side of the world.
In another recent research, even children in their first year of secondary school know how being kind makes them feel happy. If one person is kind, he or she makes others in the group kind. It also lifts everyone's spirits. Imagine that you make cakes for the office and it makes others do it each month. Then you're getting cakes a lot more days than providing them.
The story doesn't end here. Being kind may improve your mood, but research has also shown that if you're in a good mood, you can act much more kindly. This makes it a wonderful two-way relationship, doesn't it?
