There are countless other ways that different compassionate acts and lifestyle changes can affect one person, let alone society—and that is why the University of California in Los Angeles has just announced that they will be launching the world's first interdisciplinary research institute on kindness.

Thanks to a $20 million gift from The Bedari Foundation, the newly-established UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute will support world-class research on kindness, create opportunities to translate that research into real-world practices, and serve as a global platform to educate and communicate its findings.

Housed in the division of social sciences, the institute hopes to use its research to empower citizens and inspire leaders to build more humane societies.