Being Good, Doing Good

Based on philosophical and religious traditions, greater well-being and better health are assumed to follow from a predisposition to act according to ethical standards and accepted rules of good, and/or moral behaviors, as well as prosocial and altruistic behaviors reflected in generosity and kindness. For example, in one of our previous studies we found that middle-aged and older adults who lived their lives according to these principles had lower risks of depression, less cognitive impairment, lower limitations in mobility, and less difficulty in handling everyday activities. Also, an orientation to promote good was positively associated with higher life satisfaction and happiness, mental health and physical health, social connectedness, and purpose in life. It was also associated with decreased anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

In our recent study, we focused on the role of character strengths for health. The character strengths are morally valued personality traits that not only are fundamental to one's identity but also can produce positive outcomes for oneself and/or others, and thus, contribute to the greater good.

Although more than 700 studies on character strengths have linked character strengths with a multitude of positive outcomes, studies focusing specifically on physical health and healthy behaviors have limited scope and sample size. Therefore, the main motivation for our study was to advance the science of character strengths and health, as well as health behaviors, in two important ways. These are to include infrequently analyzed areas of health and to include many more people—approximately 60,000 from 159 countries.

We focused on 24 character strengths  grouped into six broad virtue categories that are universal across cultures and nations:

• Wisdom
• Courage
• Humanity
• Justice
• Temperance
• Transcendence

Then we examined how each of the 24 character strengths was associated with important life outcomes.

The Importance of Zest, Hope, Self-Regulation, Gratitude

Zest was the character strength most commonly linked with health outcomes and health behaviors. It was also one of the main predictors of higher sense of purpose in life. This was followed by hope, self-regulation, and gratitude. Hope seemed to matter most for health-related quality of life outcomes and purpose in life. And, self-regulation and gratitude showed up as predictors of better health-related quality of life and were associated with a lower probability of engaging in harmful health behaviors. Thus, maintaining a well-rounded healthy lifestyle coincides with happiness, energy, and enthusiasm for life and health (zest), an attitude of discipline and resistance to temptations (self-regulation), feeling and expressing a sense of thankfulness in life and to others, as well as appreciating positives (gratitude), and optimistic thinking and confidence that goals can be reached (hope).

Are There Downsides to Character Strengths?

Indeed, for certain character strengths we found rather surprising negative associations with health outcomes and health behaviors. Specifically, for appreciation of beauty, creativity, and judgment, and to a certain degree also fairness, kindness, leadership, and spirituality, we found that the more one had these character strengths, the more harmful this could be for health.

We looked for an explanation and there are a few. According to one, character strengths can have a negative impact if they are overused or underused, suggesting that the association could be curvilinear—a hypothesis that we plan to test in future studies. As the individual mindlessly and without malevolent intentions brings forth too much or too little of a strength in a particular situation, it can have a negative impact on oneself or others. For example, the character strength of judgment involves displaying critical and detailed thinking and analysis. Overuse of this strength can be viewed as being rigid, cynical, narrow-minded, and self-absorbed, and can make a person seem harsh and excessively judgmental toward themselves and others. This overuse may contribute to negativity towards oneself and one's habits. A person might become trapped in negative vicious cycles of thinking and feeling that characterize several mental disorders.

On the other hand, kindness involves going out of one's way to be caring, compassionate, or giving to others. Overusing kindness can make one feel overextended, drained, and compassion fatigued. Despite being well-intentioned, kindness may become imbalanced through an excessive focus on others. This has the danger of limiting self-compassion and health behaviors in oneself, such as self-care, quality sleep, healthy eating, and exercise.

What We Know and Don't Know

As with many survey studies, our findings are just about statistical associations, not about causal relationships and mechanisms. We still need more research to explain why we observe these associations and what can be done to trigger and maybe even strengthen the positive impact of certain character strengths on health and health behaviors, as well as to limit the negative health effects of other character strengths.

Despite this drawback, our sample size included almost 60,000 people from 159 countries. So at least we know that the results are ubiquitous.

For Further Reading

Weziak‐Bialowolska, D., Bialowolski, P., & Niemiec, R. M. (2023). Character strengths and health-related quality of life in a large international sample. Journal of Research in Personality, 103, 104338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104338

Niemiec, R. M. (2019). Finding the golden mean: The overuse, underuse, and optimal use of character strengths. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 32(3–4), 453–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2019.1617674

Weziak‐Bialowolska, D., Lee, M. T., Bialowolski, P., Chen, Y., VanderWeele, T. J., & McNeely, E. (2022). Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: Longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02344-5

Weziak‐Bialowolska, D., Bialowolski, P., VanderWeele, T. J., & McNeely, E. (2021). Character strengths involving an orientation to promote good can help your health and well-being: Evidence from two longitudinal studies. American Journal of Health Promotion, 35(3), 388–398. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890117120964083

VIA Institute. (2023). What the research says about character strengths. https://www.viacharacter.org/research/findings

Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska is a faculty affiliate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, and an associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University where she also is a principal investigator at the Positive Health Program.