Does Volunteering actually make a difference, or is it overhyped?

Formal volunteering has a substantial observational literature linking it to lower mortality, though the size of the effect shrinks sharply once confounders are addressed. Weighing the data: Volunteering looks an early-stage, lower-priority area for now — the evidence is only moderate (60/100), and its estimated impact (45/100) is on the lower end too.