Articles: This Is Your Brain on Heartbreak
By Meghan Laslocky | February 15, 2013Why does getting dumped hurt physically? Meghan Laslocky explains where that feeling comes from, and what it's good for.
Tag: Evolution
Tag: Evolution
These are the most recent things on the site for the tag: Evolution. You can view more tags here.
Articles: Being Kind Makes Kids Happy
By Delia Fuhrmann | August 1, 2012A new study is the first to show that kids get a happiness boost from sacrificing for others, suggesting our strong inclinations for altruism.
Articles: The Compassionate Species
By Dacher Keltner | July 31, 2012The vulnerability of our children transformed human relationships, argues Dacher Keltner, and made compassion essential to our survival.
Videos and Podcasts: The Evolutionary Roots of Compassion
By Dacher Keltner | July 30, 2012Dacher Keltner explains why Darwin thought compassion is humans’ strongest instinct.
Articles: Toward a More Mindful Nation
By Tim Ryan | April 25, 2012Economic insecurity. A broken health care system. Youth violence. Congressman Tim Ryan explains how mindfulness can help.
Articles: Do Mirror Neurons Give Us Empathy?
By Jason Marsh | March 29, 2012Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran explains what mirror neurons tell us—and what they don't—about empathy and other skills.
Articles: Pro-Social Primates
By Jason Marsh | March 28, 2012Yale psychologist Laurie Santos explains why we should get inside monkeys' minds.
Articles: Urban Evolution
By Jill Suttie | November 4, 2011A review of David Sloan Wilson's The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time.
Articles: Steven Pinker’s History of (Non)Violence
By Jason Marsh | October 19, 2011The psychologist's latest book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, is essential reading for any reader of Greater Good.
Articles: How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness
By Rick Hanson | September 26, 2011Rick Hanson explains how you can intentionally change your brain to create lasting happiness and well-being.
Articles: Debunking the Myth of Human Selfishness
By Pelin Kesebir | September 13, 2011Two new books explore the far-reaching science of cooperation.
Videos and Podcasts: Paul Bloom on Sex, George Clooney, and Other Pleasures
By The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley | August 10, 2011The author of How Pleasure Works explains why we do good and how to find true happiness.
Articles: Sex, George Clooney, and the Meaning of Life
By Michael Bergeisen | August 10, 2011Paul Bloom discusses how the psychology of pleasure can explain what we like and why we do good--part of Greater Good's podcast series.
Articles: The Good, the Bad, and the Brain
By Gregg Sparkman | August 3, 2011A review of Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality.
Articles: Our Brains, Ourselves
By Jill Suttie | May 27, 2011A review of The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human
Articles: Why Laughter is Contagious
By Raymond Firmalino | April 12, 2011A new study offers the first evidence that chimps imitate each other's laughter. Learn why this is research you should keep in mind at your next business meeting.
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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Here’s How Much You Love Humanity
May 21, 2013Results from the Greater Good "Love of Humanity" quiz.
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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.
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.
» READ MORE
» READ MORE
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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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