Today, Friday, 13 November, is World Kindness Day, which makes it as good a day as any to pay someone an uplifting compliment, be gentle with your colleagues and subordinates and let the person with one item go ahead of you at the grocery. Especially if you have a lot more in your trolley.
The annual observance began in 1998, a year after kindness organisations from around the world gathered in Tokyo to lay the groundwork for the World Kindness Movement.
Decades later, researchers put a small gesture to the test with cups of hot chocolate in a park. The people who gave the drinks away underestimated how good the recipients would feel. Across several experiments, the researchers found that recipients picked up on the warmth behind a gesture more than givers expected.
So send the voice note. Give the compliment you were already thinking. And if you’re bringing someone a doubles, remembering how much pepper they like is a kindness all its own.