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Prosociality should be a public health priority

Hopelessness and despair threaten health and longevity. We urgently need strategies to counteract these effects and improve population health. Prosociality contributes to better mental and physical health for individuals, and for the communities in which they live. We propose that prosociality should be a public health priority.

The COVID-19 pandemic produced high levels of stress, loneliness and mental health problems, magnifying global trends in health disparities1. Hopelessness and despair are growing problems, particularly in the USA. The sharp increase in rates of poor mental health is problematic in its own right, but poor mental health also contributes to greater morbidity and mortality. Without action, we will see steep declines in global population health and escalation in related costs to society. An approach that is ‘more of the same’ is insufficient to stem the cascading effects of emotional ill-being. Something new is desperately needed.

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Fig. 1: A conceptual model of prosociality and population health.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. Feldman for his invaluable assistance with reviewing and synthesizing relevant literature.

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  1. Elissa S. Epel

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Laura D. Kubzansky

  2. Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Richard J. Davidson

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  1. Laura D. Kubzansky
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Laura D. Kubzansky.

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R.J.D. is the founder and president of the non-profit corporation Healthy Minds Innovations. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Human Behaviour thanks Gustavo Carlo, Roxanne Keynejad, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Kubzansky, L.D., Epel, E.S. & Davidson, R.J. Prosociality should be a public health priority.
Nat Hum Behav (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01717-3

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  • Published: 19 October 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01717-3

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