How is emphasizing trust over transactions healthier for communities?
Dr. Glen Moriarty, founder and CEO of 7 Cups, an online support network for people in need of emotional or mental health support, and Dr. Sarah Schnitker, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University and Director of the BRIGHTS (Baylor Research in Growth and Human Thriving Science) Center join this episode of Stories of Impact podcast.
They discuss how gift economies work and their potential to reshape mental health, community trust, and advance virtue science.
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Moriarty explains that many essential parts of modern life — from Wikipedia to open-source software to the Internet itself — are built on gift economies that operate through generosity rather than money. “These gift economies are baked into our lives and our society, and not in minor ways...they're connecting us, heart to heart, cities, countries, but just don't have good visibility. They're providing huge value and meaning to people.” The platform he founded, 7 Cups, connects more than 570,000 volunteer listeners with people in 189 countries for free emotional support. Volunteers view their work as meaningful service. “They taught me this is sacred work. We don’t want it to be transactional,” he says. “Gratitude,” he notes, is the “fuel” that sustains these economies of compassion.
“Virtue development in philosophy and psychology is inherently communal,” says Schnitker in the description of the TWCF-supported planning project she directs, in partnership with 7 Cups: Cultivating Gratitude, Generosity, and Spirituality in Digital Spaces: Charting a Course for Translational Research to Promote Human Flourishing.
In conversation with Stories of Impact, Schnitker emphasizes that true human flourishing happens at the community level, not just individually. Too often, she says, psychology has focused only on personal happiness while overlooking the larger web of relationships that makes it possible. “When you only look at individuals and not the relationships among them and even relationships with the natural world… you actually undermine the flourishing of those trees. And I think the same is true of how we’ve been trying to work towards human flourishing.”
She too sees gift economies built on trust in everyday life, and believes they are important for the health and resilience of communities. For example, she shares: in “my family, we try to actually cultivate relationships with our neighbors in a giant neighborhood. You go ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar. And when I do that, I don’t want to bring back a cup of sugar the next day. So instead of having it be the 'tit for tat' of I must always repay immediately and directly, it's more this sense that I’m part of something. I receive from some people. I give to others. And I trust that in the end it’s fair and it will work out and then I want to pay it forward. I don’t need to be tracking who’s given and received and who owes me and who doesn’t.”
Both guests highlight listening as a “superpower” for healing and gratitude as a force that deepens connection. Moriarty explains that research shows 65% of what makes therapy effective is the “therapeutic alliance” — the sense that “I really care for you, I’m listening to you.” This, he argues, is not limited to professional therapists: coaches, clergy, mentors, friends, and family all have the capacity to bring healing simply by listening with care. 7 Cups trains volunteers to cultivate this practice, offering empathic support that allows people to feel heard and to “close the loop” on worries weighing them down.
Gratitude strengthens that healing connection, but Schnitker does caution that gratitude practices focused only on personal lists may limit empathy. She emphasizes that gratitude grounded in relationships (i.e., recognizing who has helped you) is more transformative.
While 7 Cups also employs AI chatbots, Moriarty notes that 99.5% of users prefer anonymous human messaging over audio or bots, because vulnerability feels safer in written exchanges with another person. Schnitker’s research warns gratitude practices with chatbots can actually reduce empathy, since users don’t experience the reciprocity and mutual care inherent in human interactions. Both agree that AI may have a supportive role, but it cannot replace the uniquely human exchange of attention, trust, and compassion that makes true flourishing possible.
Looking ahead, both Moriarty and Schnitker believe gift economies can be more deliberately woven into local communities, bridging online and real-life forms of care. Schnitker also calls for academia to be more agile and imaginative, forging research that directly addresses real-world problems and promotes genuine wellbeing.
Built upon the award-winning video series of the same name, Templeton World Charity Foundation’s “Stories of Impact” podcast features stories of new scientific research on human flourishing that translate discoveries into practical tools. Bringing a mix of curiosity, compassion, and creativity, journalist Richard Sergay and producer Tavia Gilbert shine a spotlight on the human impact at the heart of cutting-edge social and scientific research projects supported by TWCF.
