Could Tennessee and America Use More Kindness? New Survey Says There’s Room for Improvement

Slightly more Americans, 65%, say they have personally experienced an act of kindness from someone in their community “many” (17%) or “a few” (48%) times in the past seven days. Another 16% say this has happened once in the past week, while 18% say this has not happened to them recently.

There are few notable subgroup differences in being the beneficiary of kind acts, including by income, region of the country, and urban, suburban or rural residence. Older Americans, those aged 65 and older, are somewhat more likely than those in younger age groups to say they have experienced multiple kind acts in the past week.

When it comes to observing others being treated with kindness and respect, younger adults (those aged 18 to 29), lower-income adults, those who have less formal education and people of color are less likely than other subgroups to report seeing kind behavior often or very often.

Younger Adults Less Comfortable Being Kind Toward Strangers

A slim majority of U.S. adults, 52%, say they would be “very comfortable” initiating a kind act toward a stranger in their community. Another 38% say they would be “somewhat comfortable,” while 7% would be “not too comfortable” and 2% “not at all comfortable.”

Younger people are much less likely than older people to say they would be comfortable performing kind acts for people they don’t know. Whereas 64% of adults aged 65 and older say they are very comfortable initiating kind acts toward strangers, 49% of those aged 30 to 49 and just 35% of those aged 18 to 29 are.

Other demographic differences in comfort initiating kind acts, such as by education, income and race, appear to largely be a function of age, as younger people in those subgroups are less comfortable being kind toward strangers than older people in the same subgroup.

Receiving More Kind Acts Related to Comfort in Initiating Kind Acts

U.S. adults who receive acts of kindness more often report higher comfort levels in initiating kind acts toward others. Close to eight in 10 U.S. adults who say they have personally experienced kind acts many times in the past seven days are very comfortable initiating kind acts toward strangers in their community. The percentage slips to 54% among those who say this has happened to them a few times in the past seven days and is less than 40% among those who have experienced kindness once or not at all.

This pattern is seen among all age groups, but the relationship is somewhat weaker among younger than older Americans. Forty percent of adults aged 18 to 29 who have received multiple acts of kindness in the past seven days say they are very comfortable initiating kind acts toward strangers in their community. This compares with 72% of adults aged 50 and older who have received multiple acts of kindness recently.

Notably, the four in 10 young adults who have received multiple kind acts and feel very comfortable initiating kind acts toward strangers is on par with the percentage of older adults who haven’t received multiple kind acts themselves. And only about one in four young adults who have recently received one or no acts of kindness feel very comfortable initiating kind acts toward strangers.

Most Americans View People in U.S. as Generally Kind

Nearly three-quarters of Americans perceive that U.S. adults are either “very” (11%) or “somewhat” (62%) kind, while 22% think they are “not too kind” and 5% “not kind at all.”

The extent to which Americans view the U.S. as a kind nation is strongly related to their observing acts of kindness by others.

• Ninety-two percent of those who very often see people treating others with kindness and respect believe most people in the U.S. are at least somewhat kind, including 35% who describe most Americans as being very kind.

• Among those who sometimes see people treating others with kindness, 58% believe most Americans are very or somewhat kind.

• Only 1% of those who never see kind and respectful behavior toward others think most Americans are kind. Seventy-six percent of these adults think most Americans are “not kind at all.”

Similarly, 87% of U.S. adults who have personally experienced kind acts many times in the past seven days describe most Americans as being very (25%) or somewhat (62%) kind. This percentage drops slightly to 80% among those who have received kind acts a few times in the past week. It declines more substantially to 62% among those who have experienced one kind act in the past seven days and to 54% among those who have not received any kind acts.

Among demographic subgroups, younger and lower-income adults, as well as those with less formal education and people of color, are somewhat less inclined than other subgroups to see Americans as kind, though majorities of these groups still do.

Perceptions of kindness do not vary much by region of the country, urban, suburban or rural residence, or political party identification.

Bottom Line

While Americans believe adults in the country are generally kind people, there is certainly room for improvement, as about one in four adults do not see people in the U.S. as kind and only 11% view most Americans as being very kind.

The study makes clear that people who observe kind acts being initiated by others more frequently, including when they are the recipients of kind acts, are more comfortable initiating kind acts toward strangers and more likely to view people in the U.S. as kind. Those who witness few or no kind acts are especially disinclined to think of Americans as kind.

Young adults’ lack of comfort in being kind toward strangers could work against a goal of making the U.S. a kinder nation. Whether younger adults become more comfortable with age, or if this reluctance is unique to this generation of young adults, remains an open question.

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