The well-being paradox: Comparing prosocial and self-kindness interventions for mental health benefits

[Retraction notice: A retraction for this article was reported online in Emotion on Mar 6 2025 (see record 2025-89830-001). After publication, the first author became aware that data for the self-kindness condition at the post-intervention time points for the depression and anxiety measures did not match the output originally exported from Qualtrics. The second author reported that when they were merging Qualtrics outputs into a single data file for analyses, they experienced repeated software crashes. This technical issue likely caused data cells to be incorrectly merged for the self-kindness condition at the post-intervention time point. Due to the corrupted data, the findings related to the self-kindness group at the post-intervention time point (for depression and anxiety) are incorrect. Data from the other groups and timepoints remain unaffected. This retraction was requested by all authors.] A growing body of literature supports the idea that prosocial behavior, or behavior done on behalf of another person, is beneficial to well-being. However, modern society often places a greater emphasis on self-care or "treating yourself" in the pursuit of well-being. To understand the effects of these differing forms of kindness (to others or the self), we conducted a 2-week intervention study in December 2020. Participants (N = 999) were randomly assigned to an other-kindness, self-kindness, or control condition. Participants in the other- and self-kindness groups were asked to perform three acts of kindness each week, while participants in the control condition were not. Of those who completed the intervention (N = 781), we found that participants in the other-kindness (vs. self-kindness and control) group experienced significant decreases in depression, anxiety, and loneliness from pre- to postintervention, offering compelling evidence for the mental health benefits of prosocial behavior. Unexpectedly, we also found that participants in the self-kindness (vs. other-kindness and control) group experienced significant increases in depression and anxiety. While the self-kindness group reported enjoying their acts of kindness more, the other-kindness group felt more connected. Overall, these findings reaffirm the benefits of prosocial behavior on well-being and suggest that self-kindness might not be as positive as it feels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).