The Kindness Test is the world's largest survey on what it means to be kind. It's shed light on the barriers that stop us from being kind – but also that empathy truly is international.More than 60,000 people from 144 countries chose to take part, making it the world's largest psychological study on the topic of kindness.

Being Kinder

<ul><li>The biggest factor associated with kindness wasn't age or income, but personality.</li><li>People who talk to strangers more often not only observe but receive more kindness themselves.</li><li>Our fears of talking to strangers usually don't live up to reality and people tend to enjoy it more than they expect to.</li><li>When regions of the world were compared, the fear of misinterpretation was lower in the US than in the UK or in countries in Africa.</li><li>In the US, the use of social media was more often given as a barrier to kindness</li></ul>

The Global Kindness Study: Results

But there are barriers which prevent us from being kinder still and we were keen to explore those in the Kindness Test. When people were asked to rank a list of possible factors which prevented them from carrying out kind acts, the most common reason respondents gave was that they feared they might be misinterpreted. This reminds me of my hesitation to offer to help carry the mattress, not because I didn't want to help, but because I was afraid it might come out the wrong way and cause offence.<picture><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0bwwxbz.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0bwwxbz.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p0bwwxbz.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p0bwwxbz.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p0bwwxbz.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p0bwwxbz.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p0bwwxbz.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p0bwwxbz.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><img title="Many of us are cautious about offering a helping hand to people we don't know (Credit: Johner Images/Getty Images)" src="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p0bwwxbz.jpg" alt="Many of us are cautious about offering a helping hand to people we don't know (Credit: Johner Images/Getty Images)" width="687" height="386"></picture>Many of us are cautious about offering a helping hand to people we don't know (Credit: Johner Images/Getty Images)Sometimes well-intentioned acts of kindness can be fraught, like offering a seat on the bus to a woman who might or might not be pregnant. And sometimes we fear embarrassment or rejection.This might explain why the most common kind act that people reported carrying out, was "helping people when they ask". Now that might sound a little grudging. How truly kind is an act if you have to be asked to do it? But to me it seems instructive that this came top. Perhaps we are nervous about offering help, but very happy to do it once we know the person welcomes our assistance.&nbsp;<BLOCKQUOTE><h2>The biggest factor associated with kindness wasn't age or income, but personality</h2></BLOCKQUOTE>There's another finding which might shed light on our reticence. The biggest factor associated with kindness wasn't age or income, but personality. We used a scale which measured what are known as the Big Five personality factors. Not surprisingly the kindest people scored high on "agreeableness", but they also scored high on extraversion and openness.&nbsp;I wonder whether these people feel more able to offer their help, not necessarily because they want to help any more than anyone else, but that their extraversion and their openness (their fondness for new experiences) makes them less fearful of what might happen when they do.<div dir="ltr"> The woman who was kind every day for a year</div>And for those of us who hesitate to help, we can take comfort from the answers people gave when we asked them how they felt after receiving an act of kindness. The words most commonly used were "happy", "grateful", "loved", "relieved" and "pleased". Less than 1% of people said they felt embarrassed. We also found that even when you take personality into account, people who talk to strangers more often not only observe, but receive more kindness themselves.Gillian Sandstrom from the University of Sussex, who was on the team analysing the Kindness Test, has found that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15298868.2020.1816568" dir="ltr">our fears of talking to strangers usually don't live up to the reality</a> and people tend to enjoy it more than they expect to.When regions of the world were compared, the fear of misinterpretation was lower in the US than in the UK or in countries in Africa. In the US, the use of social media was more often given as a barrier to kindness.&nbsp;<BLOCKQUOTE><h2>Just over a quarter of people worried about their kindness being perceived as a weakness</h2></BLOCKQUOTE>Worldwide, the second-most-common reason people gave for not being kinder was a lack of time, especially in Western and Northern Europe. This seems to be less of a factor in North America or Southern Europe. It is true of course that if you want to volunteer you need to have time to spare, but plenty of the other kind acts people carry out don't take time. The most common act of kindness that people told us they had done recently was to say something kind to someone, which tends not to take too long.Robin Banerjee from the University of Sussex, who led the Kindness Test, demonstrated that people are giving, seeing and receiving a lot of kindness everywhere in the world, but based on our admittedly English-speaking sample, there are some tentative trends too: "The data showed that this can't be reduced to a simple East versus West comparison or collectivistic versus individualistic countries. We found a much more nuanced pattern. We could have two quite industrialised, Westernised countries with different views about kindness."<picture><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0bwwx4v.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0bwwx4v.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p0bwwx4v.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p0bwwx4v.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p0bwwx4v.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p0bwwx4v.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p0bwwx4v.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p0bwwx4v.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><img title="Extroverts' fondess for new experiences might make them more open to helping others (Credit: Jasmina007/Getty Images)" src="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p0bwwx4v.jpg" alt="Extroverts' fondess for new experiences might make them more open to helping others (Credit: Jasmina007/Getty Images)" width="687" height="386"></picture>Extroverts' fondess for new experiences might make them more open to helping others (Credit: Jasmina007/Getty Images)Just over a quarter of people worried about their kindness being perceived as a weakness. Yet we also know from the Kindness Test that after giving an act of kindness people not only feel more connected to others and happier, but they said it helps them to feel as though they are a good person and adds meaning to their lives.And that's just the givers. Receiving kindness makes us feel good too and is associated with higher levels of well-being. This is just the start of the analysis of the data from the Kindness Test and many more papers on the findings will be published in scientific journals. But taking all this evidence into account, perhaps we need to start trying to view kindness, not as a weakness, but as a strength.And maybe next time I run past people manoeuvring a mattress, I'll summon up the courage to offer to help.To hear more about the results of the Kindness Test listen to Anatomy of Kindness presented by Claudia Hammond on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00154cp" dir="ltr">BBC Radio 4</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m00154cp" dir="ltr">BBC Sounds</a>. --Join one million Future fans by liking us on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCFuture/" dir="ltr">Facebook</a>, or follow us on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BBC_Future" dir="ltr">Twitter</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bbcfuture_official/" dir="ltr">Instagram</a>.If you liked this story,&nbsp;<a href="http://pages.emails.bbc.com/subscribe/?ocid=fut.bbc.email.we.email-signup" dir="ltr">sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter</a>, called "The Essential List" – a handpicked selection of stories from BBC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/" dir="ltr">Future</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture" dir="ltr">Culture</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife" dir="ltr">Worklife</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel" dir="ltr">Travel</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/reel" dir="ltr">Reel</a>&nbsp;delivered to your inbox every Friday.&nbsp;

The Kindness Test is the world's largest survey on what it means to be kind. It's shed light on the barriers that stop us being kind – but also that empathy truly is international.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

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Love & Relationships

But there are barriers which prevent us from being kinder still and we were keen to explore those in the Kindness Test. When people were asked to rank a list of possible factors which prevented them from carrying out kind acts, the most common reason respondents gave was that they feared they might be misinterpreted. This reminds me of my hesitation to offer to help carry the mattress, not because I didn't want to help, but because I was afraid it might come out the wrong way and cause offence.

Many of us are cautious about offering a helping hand to people we don't know (Credit: Johner Images/Getty Images)

Sometimes well-intentioned acts of kindness can be fraught, like offering a seat on the bus to a woman who might or might not be pregnant. And sometimes we fear embarrassment or rejection.

This might explain why the most common kind act that people reported carrying out, was "helping people when they ask". Now that might sound a little grudging. How truly kind is an act if you have to be asked to do it? But to me it seems instructive that this came top. Perhaps we are nervous about offering help, but very happy to do it once we know the person welcomes our assistance.

The biggest factor associated with kindness wasn't age or income, but personality

There's another finding which might shed light on our reticence. The biggest factor associated with kindness wasn't age or income, but personality. We used a scale which measured what are known as the Big Five personality factors. Not surprisingly the kindest people scored high on "agreeableness", but they also scored high on extraversion and openness.

I wonder whether these people feel more able to offer their help, not necessarily because they want to help any more than anyone else, but that their extraversion and their openness (their fondness for new experiences) makes them less fearful of what might happen when they do.

And for those of us who hesitate to help, we can take comfort from the answers people gave when we asked them how they felt after receiving an act of kindness. The words most commonly used were "happy", "grateful", "loved", "relieved" and "pleased". Less than 1% of people said they felt embarrassed. We also found that even when you take personality into account, people who talk to strangers more often not only observe, but receive more kindness themselves.

Gillian Sandstrom from the University of Sussex, who was on the team analysing the Kindness Test, has found that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15298868.2020.1816568">our fears of talking to strangers usually don't live up to the reality </a>and people tend to enjoy it more than they expect to.

When regions of the world were compared, the fear of misinterpretation was lower in the US than in the UK or in countries in Africa. In the US, the use of social media was more often given as a barrier to kindness.

Just over a quarter of people worried about their kindness being perceived as a weakness

Worldwide, the second-most-common reason people gave for not being kinder was a lack of time, especially in Western and Northern Europe. This seems to be less of a factor in North America or Southern Europe. It is true of course that if you want to volunteer you need to have time to spare, but plenty of the other kind acts people carry out don't take time. The most common act of kindness that people told us they had done recently was to say something kind to someone, which tends not to take too long.

Robin Banerjee from the University of Sussex, who led the Kindness Test, demonstrated that people are giving, seeing and receiving a lot of kindness everywhere in the world, but based on our admittedly English-speaking sample, there are some tentative trends too: "The data showed that this can't be reduced to a simple East versus West comparison or collectivistic versus individualistic countries. We found a much more nuanced pattern. We could have two quite industrialised, Westernised countries with different views about kindness."

Extroverts' fondess for new experiences might make them more open to helping others (Credit: Jasmina007/Getty Images)

Just over a quarter of people worried about their kindness being perceived as a weakness. Yet we also know from the Kindness Test that after giving an act of kindness people not only feel more connected to others and happier, but they said it helps them to feel as though they are a good person and adds meaning to their lives.

And that's just the givers. Receiving kindness makes us feel good too and is associated with higher levels of well-being. This is just the start of the analysis of the data from the Kindness Test and many more papers on the findings will be published in scientific journals. But taking all this evidence into account, perhaps we need to start trying to view kindness, not as a weakness, but as a strength.

And maybe next time I run past people manoeuvring a mattress, I'll summon up the courage to offer to help.

To hear more about the results of the Kindness Test listen to Anatomy of Kindness presented by Claudia Hammond on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00154cp">BBC Radio 4 </a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m00154cp">BBC Sounds </a> .

Join one million Future fans by liking us on  <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCFuture/">Facebook </a>, or follow us on  <a href="https://twitter.com/BBC_Future">Twitter </a> or  <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bbcfuture_official/">Instagram </a>.

If you liked this story,  <a href="http://pages.emails.bbc.com/subscribe/?ocid=fut.bbc.email.we.email-signup">sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter </a>, called "The Essential List" – a handpicked selection of stories from BBC  <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/">Future </a>,  <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture">Culture </a>,  <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife">Worklife </a>,  <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel">Travel </a> and  <a href="https://www.bbc.com/reel">Reel </a> delivered to your inbox every Friday.

What stops people from being kinder?

Being Kinder

The Global Kindness Study: Results

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