Kindness is a Learnable Skill
Our science has started to discover facial expressions for, you know, laughter and compassion and
embarrassment. My name is Dacher Keltner and I'm a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley,
faculty director of The Greater Good Science Center.
In point of fact, Charles Darwin, who has greatly shaped my research, argued in 1871 that sympathy
is our strongest instinct. Very impressively scientists are starting to pinpoint, really, a network of
neurons in the brain that helps us empathize. Now we find when we feel compassion in humans, that
part of the brain lights up. That part of the brain is connected to oxytocin networks and we know
oxytocin is this amazing neuropeptide that helps us empathize and be generous. That tells us that
kindness is biological and it's part of the human imperative or human nature.
I think your question also is asking another question. What we do here is we study emotions and
what makes people happy and part of that is based in feeling compassion and reading other
people's emotions.
One of the things we learn is how even very small gestures of compassion and kindness, even those
in the lab really make you feel more satisfied more content on just an everyday level.
We're starting to learn that as you practice kindness it shifts your nervous system and you're
healthier, right, that (...) kindness and compassion may be as powerful a determinant of physical
health as smoking.
So we're in The Greater Good Science Center and our Director of Strategic Partnerships, the
inevitable Susan Fastbird [Music]
Most places that research behavior are looking at what goes wrong between people and we're
looking at what goes right.
We're taking the science of compassion and altruism and getting it out to tens of thousands of
people.
One of the most exciting messages for people is it's not just a question of how you're born -- are
you born happy, or, are you born a certain way -- that these are not only teachable skills but
learnable skills.
When you really cultivate compassion, you really potentiate or activate a lot of the great emotions
that make up the meaningful life [Applause]
embarrassment. My name is Dacher Keltner and I'm a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley,
faculty director of The Greater Good Science Center.
In point of fact, Charles Darwin, who has greatly shaped my research, argued in 1871 that sympathy
is our strongest instinct. Very impressively scientists are starting to pinpoint, really, a network of
neurons in the brain that helps us empathize. Now we find when we feel compassion in humans, that
part of the brain lights up. That part of the brain is connected to oxytocin networks and we know
oxytocin is this amazing neuropeptide that helps us empathize and be generous. That tells us that
kindness is biological and it's part of the human imperative or human nature.
I think your question also is asking another question. What we do here is we study emotions and
what makes people happy and part of that is based in feeling compassion and reading other
people's emotions.
One of the things we learn is how even very small gestures of compassion and kindness, even those
in the lab really make you feel more satisfied more content on just an everyday level.
We're starting to learn that as you practice kindness it shifts your nervous system and you're
healthier, right, that (...) kindness and compassion may be as powerful a determinant of physical
health as smoking.
So we're in The Greater Good Science Center and our Director of Strategic Partnerships, the
inevitable Susan Fastbird [Music]
Most places that research behavior are looking at what goes wrong between people and we're
looking at what goes right.
We're taking the science of compassion and altruism and getting it out to tens of thousands of
people.
One of the most exciting messages for people is it's not just a question of how you're born -- are
you born happy, or, are you born a certain way -- that these are not only teachable skills but
learnable skills.
When you really cultivate compassion, you really potentiate or activate a lot of the great emotions
that make up the meaningful life [Applause]
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