Cooking for others is food for the soul: Consistent momentary, but mixed trait‐level well‐being benefits for home cooks
Bryant P. H. Hui et al.
What the paper says
Prosocial behavior can promote well-being, yet the effects of everyday acts-such as cooking for others-remain understudied. Across four studies (N > 1,500), we developed and validated a Prosocial Cooking Scale and examined its well-being effects using cross-sectional surveys and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Cross-sectional analyses linked prosocial cooking to greater positive affect-but also higher negative affect-at the between-person level. EMA studies revealed within-person benefits: Individuals reported increased positive affect and subjective happiness-and, in our larger community-based sample, higher self-esteem, vitality, and lower negative affect-during prosocial cooking episodes. However, trait-level associations were modest and inconsistent, emerging most reliably for positive affect. Notably, benefits-including positive affect and self-esteem-were strongest for introverts, supporting a person-activity fit perspective. These findings highlight prosocial cooking as an accessible act conferring well-being gains, and illustrate how EMA captures the impact of kindness in everyday life.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.