Plus, our judgment of the person who initiated the act of kindness can spark related, positive emotions, explains Oscar Ybarra, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. For instance, our judgment of Gaur as selfless or self-sacrificing might inspire awe.¶¶All these positive emotions, in turn, can make us more likely to commit acts of kindness ourselves – which is kind of amazing. Since witnessing an act of kindness basically involves feeling as if we had participated in it, Diessner notes that those of us who are moved by such an act “are also getting a vicarious reward.” And the reward of watching someone being kind feels good, making us more likely to do something similar, Ybarra says. The person who initiated the kind act “serves as a model for what we could do.”