The Greater Good Blog

The Unselfish Gene?

“I feel your pain,” Bill Clinton famously told Americans when he was running for president. Now it seems that his message may have had as much to do with genetics as with politics: A new study, sponsored in part by the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC), has found evidence that empathy may be influenced by a single gene.

In the study, co-authored by neuroscientist Sarina Rodrigues when she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center, along with GGSC Graduate Fellow Laura Saslow, nearly 200 participants took tests that measured their ability to identify and feel the emotions of others; they also provided DNA samples. When the researchers, who also included Center Faculty Director Dacher Keltner, examined the participants’ DNA, they zeroed in on a particular gene that’s the receptor for oxytocin, which is known as the “love hormone.” People can have one of three variations of this gene—either AA, AG, or GG—depending on the genetic information they receive from each parent.

The researchers found that participants who had the GG variation scored significantly higher on the empathy tests than those who had either of the other two variations. What’s more, people with the GG variation seemed less reactive to stress, which the researchers gauged in part by measuring the participants’ heart rate as they anticipated a loud burst of noise.

The study, published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on why some people may have a harder time connecting with others.

“I think the most useful information we can take from this study is that some people are going to be a bit more naturally closed off and unable to really understand what other people are feeling,” says Rodrigues, “and this could be in large part due to the fact that they’re so consumed by their own stress—that it’s somehow impairing them from connecting with others and reaching out.”

One encouraging implication of the study is that empathy is part of humans’ biological legacy. At least for some people, empathy is innate, something that’s rooted in the genetic makeup they get from their parents.

But what about those who have the AA or AG variation—are they doomed to go through life emotionally cut off from others?

Not at all, says Rodrigues, who’s quick to point out that our genes do not determine our destiny. Our genome may predispose us to certain behaviors, but ultimately, our lives are shaped by the interaction between our genes and our experiences.

“Sure, our genes give us a natural predisposition to the way we might want to socially connect with people or handle stress,” says Rodrigues, now an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University. “But through nurturing and social connectivity and understanding, people can overcome these obstacles.”

Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

It’s conventional wisdom that marriage is good for your health, and sure enough, many studies do show that married people are healthier. But a recent study by John Hopkins University social demographer Mary Hughes and University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, complicates things a bit: Divorce and widowhood, they find, can actually cause more damage to your health than never getting married in the first place

Hughes and Waite analyzed data on a diverse sample of people between the ages of 51 and 61, looking at their marital and health history. While they did find that people with a strong and happy marriage showed health benefits, they also found that a disruption to a marriage—either through divorce or the death of a spouse—can harm someone’s health for even years afterwards

Among the currently married, people who had previously been divorced or experienced multiple disruptions showed worse health than those who had never divorced—and than those who had never been married at all. Both the divorced and widowed who did not remarry had worse health across the board than the continuously married; even if they had remarried, they were still at greater risk for health problems that develop over long stretches of time, such as cancer and mobility limitations. But their risk for some other problems, such as depressive symptoms, decreased if they had remarried and stayed married.

Those who were never married fared better than those who had been widowed or divorced. However, the never-married showed significantly more mobility limitations and significantly worse self-rated health than continuously married people.

Although being married is sometimes championed as the key to a healthy life, this study suggests that getting married for the sake of being married can potentially cause more harm than good. Overall, the authors write that this study suggests (emphasis theirs) “being married may protect or even improve health, getting divorced or becoming widowed may damage health, and being divorced or widowed may damage health.”

The Charter for Compassion

When renowned religious scholar Karen Armstrong won the coveted TED prize, she was asked to make a single wish, one that the TED community would help her achieve.

Her modest request? To unite the world around compassion.

Now, one year later, she’s helped us all take one step closer toward making that wish come true.

Today, Armstrong unveiled the Charter for Compassion, a call to restore compassion to the center of our values, our religious traditions, and our daily lives. The release of the Charter is being accompanied by events around the world meant to celebrate and promote acts of compassion. The Greater Good Science Center is honored to be among the groups that have partnered with the Charter to help spread its hugely important work and message.

The Charter itself was developed over the course of a year, soliciting input from people worldwide before a Council of Conscience–composed of thinkers representing the world’s major religions–channeled that input into six elegant, effective paragraphs.

You can read the Charter below, and affirm it on the Charter’s website. I encourage you to get involved in other ways as well: attend a Charter for Compassion event, spread word of the Charter to others, or just go out of your way to perform an act of compassion–then let others know about it through the Charter’s website, so that it might inspire others to follow suit.

The Charter for Compassion:

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others–even our enemies–is a denial of our common humanity.

We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion. We therefore call upon all men and women
* to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion.
* to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate
* to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures
* to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity
* to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings ~ even those regarded as enemies

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries.

Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Thinking Way Outside the Box

Those of you considering a stint in the Peace Corps, or just a big move overseas, take note: A recent study has documented a link between living abroad and creativity.

In the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers William Maddux and Adam Galinsky had people participate in a variety of tasks meant to measure their creativity, including a word association task, a drawing exercise, a test of their “insight creativity”—their ability to see problems from different perspectives and find hidden solutions—and a measure of their “interpersonal creativity,” meaning their ability to negotiate a deal with someone else in which both parties come away with some gain.

More than half of the participants were American students; the rest were students from foreign countries like Bangladesh, Mexico, and Switzerland. In addition to the creativity exercises, each person filled out a questionnaire that asked whether the person had lived and/or traveled abroad and for how long.

© Rob Millenaar

Maddux and Galinsky found that people who had resided in a foreign country scored significantly higher on the creativity tasks than the other participants. More specifically, though, it was the extent to which a person reported having assimilated into the new culture, more than the actual time spent living abroad, which was linked to creativity. Simply traveling abroad was not associated with creative thinking.

Maddux and Galinsky admit that it is hard to determine whether living abroad actually causes creativity. They note that many studies on creative personality types reveal that creative people share traits such as openness to experience, self-confidence, and cognitive flexibility—characteristics that may make someone want not only to travel, but to live in and adapt to foreign places. In other words, living abroad may not boost creativity; instead, it is possible that creative people are more likely than others to live abroad and assimilate into their new culture.

Still, the researchers consider that people who spend portions of their lives in a foreign country, and allow themselves to be absorbed into the host culture, may become practiced at seeing other perspectives and comparing different possible solutions to life’s challenges, thus boosting their skills at creative thinking. In that light, Maddux and Galinsky argue, their study underlines the importance of having diverse experiences and of understanding cultures very different from our own, especially as the world becomes more interconnected.

“It may be that those critical months or years of turning cultural bewilderment into concrete understanding may instill not only the ability to ‘think outside the box,’” they write, “but also the capacity to realize that the box is more than a simple square, more than its simple form, but also a repository of many creative possibilities.”

Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?

Since Daniel Goleman popularized the term “emotional intelligence” (EI), studies have found that high EI is associated with lots of good things, including academic and occupational success, resistance to stress, and better relationships. But is EI something we can learn, or is it something we’ve got to be born with?

© Mido Photography

Cognitive scientist Delphine Nelis and colleagues recently tried to figure this out. In their study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, they divided roughly 40 college students into two groups. One attended four two-and-a-half hour training sessions over a four-week period in order to learn techniques for improving their emotional intelligence; the other didn’t take the training.

The goal of these EI sessions was to increase the participants’ skills in understanding, analyzing, expressing, and regulating their emotions. Each session included short lectures, role playing exercises, discussions, and readings. For example, in a role playing exercise, two participants pretended to be co-workers in the thick of a disagreement; after their interaction, the group discussed how well they handled the disagreement, then the participants ran through the exercise again to find more positive ways of expressing their emotions.

All participants were also given a diary in which they wrote about their daily emotional experiences. They then had to analyze these experiences in class in light of what they had been learning in the training.

The participants in both groups were tested before, directly after, and six months after the training to see if their emotional intelligence had improved.

Delphine and her colleagues found that members of the group that received the training showed a significant improvement in their ability to identify their feelings and the feelings of others, as well as to manage and control their emotions. What’s more, these improvements were apparent not only right after the training but also six months later.

So while this study was a small pilot with a somewhat homogenous group of participants, the findings suggest that it is possible to increase emotional intelligence in the short and long term. “Overall, the results are promising,” write the researchers, “as they suggest that, with a proper methodology relying on the latest scientific knowledge about emotion and emotional processing, some facets of EI can be enhanced, but not all.”

The Happiness of Pursuit: A Review of Curious?

In Curious?, George Mason University psychologist Todd Kashdan provides self-help backed by science, toting curiosity as the means to a fulfilling life. Kashdan asks his readers: Is life really all about achieving happiness, or is it actually the pursuit of happiness that gives our lives purpose and meaning?

Assisted by experimental data, stories from his therapy practice, and his own life experiences, Kashdan argues that it is the drive for knowledge, fulfillment, and happiness, motivated by one’s curiosity, that allows for meaningful personal growth. “Two simple processes—triggering intrigue and sustaining interest—are at the heart of a fulfilling life,” he writes.

The book includes strategies to boost one’s curiosity and explanations as to why curiosity is so important to so many different situations, from romance to parenting to achieving our goals. Kashdan describes his ideal person, who he dubs the “curious explorer,” as one who frequently experiences intense feelings of curiosity and acts on them daily. Curious explorers, evidently, are well-liked, personable, and achieve greater success in their careers. Based on multiple studies, Kashdan concludes, “Very curious people are viewed by strangers and close friends as comfortable, animated, interesting, and fun.” This all makes sense: If you deny your feelings of curiosity and avoid new directions, odds are your life is going to be relatively dull and unrewarding. 

Kashdan also asks his readers to adjust their perspective on anxiety, depicting it as a necessary byproduct of a life guided by curiosity. “If you view something as new and challenging,” writes Kashdan, “you are going to be more engaged and feel more joy and pleasure than if you were in a situation that didn’t make you anxious.”

Kashdan argues convincingly for the need to remain in active pursuit of our goals, urging readers to embrace the new and unfamiliar instead of fearing them. At times, though, his examples of therapeutic sessions with patients begin to feel redundant, reading just like testimonials as to how and why curiosity works.

Still, it’s hard not to feel inspired by Kashdan’s notion of curiosity as a key to fulfillment. Curious? offers important insight to anyone trying to live a more meaningful, active life.

The Horse Boy

Please give your heart and soul a treat and see the documentary film The Horse Boy, now opening in theaters nationwide. (See http://www.horseboymovie.com for a list of upcoming screenings.) I recently saw the film at the Mill Valley Film Festival and can’t recommend it highly enough.

The film documents a family’s journey to Mongolia in search of a way to heal their son, Rowan, who has been diagnosed with autism. They travel to Mongolia to ride horses–because even sitting on a horse calms Rowan’s tantrums, which can last up to four hours–and to visit remote shamans, whose healing rituals actually do open up Rowan’s capacities to connect with other human beings again. The film mostly chronicles the family’s journey, but it also includes interviews with leading scientists studying autism, and these interviews help transform our view of autism from a disease to a different way of perceiving and participating in the world.

What impressed me most about the film was the deep love the parents have for their son, and their unwavering commitment to his healing. Rowan’s father, Rupert Isaacson, is a lifelong lover of horses and a journalist who had researched shamanic healing among the Bushmen in the Kalihari Desert in Botswana. Rowan’s mother, Kristin Neff, is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas who has done pioneering work on the concept of “self-compassion.”

Rupert Isaacson was present for a Q&A at the screening of the film that I saw, and he added many details about their journey. He also discussed how scientists are now thinking that the warmth, touch, and movement of riding a horse releases oxytocin, the “love hormone,” and that the rocking motion of riding on a horse helps re-balance the brain and open the way for quantum leaps in healing.

The Horse Boy is transformative for viewers as well as for its subjects. It opens our hearts to the healing powers of love and compassion; it opens our minds to the importance of different ways of being in the world.

Linda Graham, MFT, publishes an e-newsletter, Healing and Awakening into Aliveness and Wholeness, archived at www.lindagraham-mft.com.

Greed, Games, and Goodness–This Friday!

Time is running out to get your ticket to the first-ever Greater Good Science Center fundraiser, happening this Friday evening on the UC Berkeley campus.

“Greed, Games, and Goodness” will feature a conversation between the GGSC’s Dacher Keltner and best-selling author and journalist (and Bay Area literary celeb) Michael Lewis. They’ll discuss some of Lewis’s areas of expertise–the economic crisis (Liar’s Poker, Panic, and the forthcoming The Big Short), sports (Moneyball, The Blind Side), and parenthood (this year’s very funny Home Game)–and the scientific research that illuminates them.

Lewis is hilarious and always insightful, so it should be a fun evening–not to mention a great way to support the GGSC.

You can still buy tickets here. Hope to see you Friday!

Check Out Oakland Local

Our friend Susan Mernit has just helped launch a news and community site for the Oakland area, Oakland Local. It zeroes in on issues like climate change, air quality, arts & activism, food access, and race. Plus, it features a directory of 320 local nonprofits and a blog directory of 180 active local bloggers as well.

If you live in Oakland or the Bay Area, it should be a stellar resource. And if you don’t, it should provide a great model of something journalists, bloggers, and activists in your community could develop. I’ll definitely be checking it out regularly–if Susan’s attached to it, you know it’s gonna be worth watching.

More on Meditation and Your Brain

The last Greater Good post discussed how years of meditation practice can physically alter the brain in ways that help us manage our emotions and boost our skills of attention. But if you haven’t already been meditating for years, don’t give up hope! Other research suggests that you can see meditation’s effects on your social and emotional skills after just 20 minutes of practice a day for five days.

In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, neuroscientist Yi-Yun Tang and his colleagues reported that people who meditate for as little as 20 minutes a day for five days showed fewer signs of stress immediately after their practice, including lower heart rate and respiratory rate—levels even lower than those of a control group that practiced muscle-relaxation.

What’s more, the meditators demonstrated a stronger ability to regulate their behavior and emotions. Specifically, they had higher “heart rate variability,” which is an index of how well one can swing into action when startled or stimulated, and calm down when there is no immediate danger. Most interestingly, mediators also showed increased activation in the area of the brain that coordinates the physiological functions, such as heart-rate, that activate in response to threats, suggesting that their physiological reactions under stress are more controlled and adaptive.

Previous research, including a 2007 study on which Tang was the lead author, has also found that just five days of meditation training can boost participants’ concentration skills and reduce their reactions to stress. But this study took the previous findings a step further and pinpointed the specific brain and physiological mechanisms that help reduce reactivity to stress after meditation.