Dacher Keltner is the founding faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center. He is also the author of Born To Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life.
In the video above he talks about the human roots of compassion and kindness. Below is some background taken directly from the Greater Good website. You can discover more via the following link.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/
Our Mission
The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.
Based at the University of California, Berkeley, the GGSC is unique in its commitment to both science and practice: not only do we sponsor ground breaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being, we help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives.
Since 2001, we have been at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behaviour – the science of a meaningful life. And we have been without peer in our award-winning efforts to translate and disseminate this science to the public.
Our Core Beliefs
Compassion is a fundamental human trait, with deep psychological and evolutionary roots. By creating environments that foster cooperation and altruism, we help nurture the positive side of human nature.
Happiness is not simply dependent on a person’s genes. It is a set of skills that can be taught, and, with practice, developed over time.
Happiness and altruism are intertwined—doing good is an essential ingredient to being happy.
Science should do more than help us understand human behavior and emotion in the abstract; it should be applied toward improving people’s personal and professional lives.
Studying the roots of good, healthy, and positive behavior is just as important as studying human pathologies. To promote individual and social well-being, science must examine how people overcome difficult circumstances and how they develop positive emotions and relationships.
Individual well-being promotes social well-being, and social well-being promotes individual well-being. The well-being of society as a whole can best be achieved by providing information, tools, and skills to those people directly responsible for shaping the well-being of others.
There are many videos on the Greater Good site. Some of these contain sessions from the summits and other events they hold.
Below is a video in which Google’s “Jolly Good Fellow,” Chade-Meng Tan, talks about his book, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace).
Here is the link to many more videos offered by the Greater Good Science Center.
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