The Unselfish Gene?
Friday, November 20th, 2009 | Tags: empathy, oxytocin | Leave a Comment »“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 ...
Thinking Way Outside the Box
Friday, November 6th, 2009 | Tags: Creativity, empathy | 2 Comments »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 ...
Global Giving
Monday, September 21st, 2009 | Tags: Giving, altruism, cooperation, empathy, globalization, money, prosocial behavior, social connections | Leave a Comment »It’s a small world we live in, increasingly connected by technology, trade, and common threats to our species’ survival. Cooperation and collaboration are needed to overcome the enormous environmental challenges before us. But will globalization encourage this kind of cooperation—or ...
And they all lived happily ever after…
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | Tags: Education, children, development, emotional literacy, empathy, family, parenting | Leave a Comment »Growing up, I was always a fan of bedtime stories with my mom. Looking back, I realize she had quite a talent for picking some good ones (like my favorite, Where the Wild Things Are). According to a recent study by ...
What happens when compassion hurts?
Friday, May 8th, 2009 | Tags: Uncategorized, compassion, empathy, goodness, helping behavior, human nature, mindfulness, violence | 3 Comments »This is the edited transcript of a May 7 talk I gave to the nurses of UC Berkeley Health Services on surviving compassion fatigue. I’m going to warn you: This is a somewhat difficult talk, full of paradoxes. I’m going ...
Just in Time for Mother’s Day
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 | Tags: children, compassion, empathy, family, health, meditation, mindfulness, parenting, psychology, trust | 1 Comment »It’s a shame Mindful Motherhood by Cassandra Vieten (New Harbinger, 2009) wasn’t around when I became a parent. I remember waking up to my crying baby and feeling a mixture of fatigue, confusion, and resentment as I rose from our ...
Empathy’s in Our Genes?
Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | Tags: Bystander, compassion, empathy, evolution, genetics | Leave a Comment »Pavlov taught his dogs to slobber at the sound of a bell. Now, in a recent study, researchers have taught mice to flinch in pain at the sound of a buzzer. The difference is that the mice learned that behavior ...
Men: Express Yourselves
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | Tags: Giving, compassion, empathy, family, gender roles, happiness, health, helping behavior, marriage, prosocial behavior, psychology, social connections | 1 Comment »Strong, silent types take note: A recent study suggests that husbands who express their emotions to wives taking care of them have spouses who are less stressed and provide better care. In the study, published in the journal Emotion, researchers at ...
How Good Are You?
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | Tags: Prejudice, altruism, compassion, empathy, goodness, morality, prosocial behavior, psychology, social intelligence | Leave a Comment »The folks at the Utne Reader asked me to contribute to their "Alt Wire," billed as "a morning digest of links and information collected and explained by a different guest blogger every weekday." So today, I wrote this post, listing ...
Lie to Him
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 | Tags: Dacher Keltner, Paul Ekman, compassion, empathy, events | Leave a Comment »What does the Dalai Lama have in common with the latest Fox TV crime show? This is not a trick question. The answer? They've both recently collaborated with Greater Good editorial board member Paul Ekman. Yes, just a few months after he ...
