Why Lent Makes People Happy (and Netflix Doesn’t)
By Jason Marsh, Robb Willer | March 21, 2013New research suggests that cutting back on life’s pleasures helps us enjoy them significantly more.
Most Recent Story
World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements
By Vicki Zakrzewski | May 21, 2013A Q&A with visionary educator John Hunter, creator of the World Peace Game.
Past Stories
Stressed Out? Try Helping Out
By Shawn Radcliffe | March 20, 2013A new study finds that helping others gives you a health boost.
Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain
By Louis Cozolino | March 19, 2013In an excerpt from his new book, psychologist Louis Cozolino applies the lessons of social neuroscience to the classroom.
Why Mindful Parenting Works
By Christine Carter | March 18, 2013One technique to put a little breathing room into your interaction with kids
Too Many Bullies
By Jill Suttie | March 14, 2013Emily Bazelon's new book explores bullying among kids—and finds the solution in fostering empathy among both kids and adults.
Just One Thing: Make Good Bargains
By Rick Hanson | March 12, 2013Life is full of tradeoffs between benefits and costs, says Rick Hanson—but the brain isn't always good at telling one from the other.
March Education Newsletter
By Vicki Zakrzewski | March 12, 2013From training kids for compassion to the neuroscience of learning, here's a round-up of our recent education content.
How to Influence Your Teen, Part 1
By Christine Carter | March 11, 2013Ten ways to decrease their resistance to your wise advice.
Five Life Lessons from “56 Up”
By Jeremy Adam Smith | March 9, 2013The "Up" documentaries have followed 14 people from ages seven to 56—and in the process illustrated recent discoveries about the science of a meaningful life.
Podcast: Fostering Creativity in Kids
By Christine Carter and Rona Renner | March 7, 2013Tips for raising children who are great problem-solvers
Training Kids for Kindness
By Brooke Dodson-Lavelle | March 5, 2013Brooke Dodson-Lavelle explains how a trailblazing compassion training program expands children's natural capacity for empathy and kindness—even toward so-called "bullies."
Happiness Tip: Nag less
By Christine Carter | March 4, 2013Increase the odds that your kids will do things the first time you ask
Sustaining Compassion in Health Care
By Robert McClure | February 28, 2013As demands on health care providers increase, compassion becomes more difficult to sustain. But a new training holds the promise of helping them meet those challenges.
Podcast: Looking for a Preschool?
By Christine Carter and Rona Renner | February 28, 2013Rona's guide to finding the best school for your child
February Raising Happiness Newsletter: Relationship Resources
By Christine Carter | February 27, 2013Are you so over Valentine's Day?
Most...
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Why Compassion in Business Makes Sense
April 15, 2013Emma Seppala explains how compassionate workplaces are good for employee health and the corporate bottom line.
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How to be a Happy Working Dad, Part One
March 27, 2013A new report finds that fitting work with family isn't just a women's issue. Jeremy Adam Smith offers 10 tips for helping fathers to navigate a changing landscape at home and on the job.
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When Getting Angry Makes You Happy
April 2, 2013A new study shows how seeking happiness at the right time may be more important than seeking happiness all the time.
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World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements
May 21, 2013A Q&A with visionary educator John Hunter, creator of the World Peace Game.
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Can You Run Out of Empathy?
May 20, 2013An essay in this week’s New Yorker argues that we don't have enough empathy to go around. But new research says we can keep renewing and expanding our feeling for others.
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‘Free the Mind’ film
May 17, 2013
Greater Good Events
Greater Good Summer Institute for Educators
University of California, Berkeley
Clark Kerr Campus
Friday, June 28 - Wednesday, July 3, 2013
» ALL EVENTS
University of California, Berkeley
Clark Kerr Campus
Friday, June 28 - Wednesday, July 3, 2013
The GGSC’s six-day Summer Institute will equip educators with social-emotional learning tools that will benefit both students and teachers. Registration is now closed.
» ALL EVENTS
Take a Greater Good Quiz!
How compassionate are you? How generous, grateful, or forgiving? Find out!
» TAKE A QUIZ
Watch Greater Good Videos
Talks by inspiring speakers like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dacher Keltner, and Barbara Fredrickson.
WatchGreater Good Resources
"Gratitude and Prosocial Behavior"
Finds that feeling gratitude produces kind and helpful behavior, even when that behavior is costly to the individual actor.
- "Compassion: An Evolutionary Analysis and Empirical Review"
Compassion evolved as a distinct affective experience whose function is to enable cooperation and protection of those who...
- "From Jerusalem to Jericho"
This article on bystander intervention in emergency situations suggests that we are likely to help a “shabbily dressed”...
- Center for Investigating Healthy Minds
The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, runs a state-of-the-art neuroscience...
- Northeast Foundation for Children
Northeast Foundation for Children is a non-profit educational organization that offers educators the Responsive Classroom...
- Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship
Based at the University of Michigan Business School, this is a networking community for researchers and practitioners...
Book of the Week
Why We Cooperate
Nature and nurture interact to inform, and reform, cooperative behavior. Infants and apes are both able to share, but only the two-year-old will pick up that thing you dropped in front of her.
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Sponsors
Special thanks to
The Quality of Life Foundation for its support of the Greater Good Science Center
"Greater Good offers a first-rate service to those who want to track new and important research findings in social and emotional intelligence."
Daniel Goleman
Best-selling author,
Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence
(www.danielgoleman.info)
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