Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

“A transvaluation of values”: F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (New York: NuVision Publications, 2007), 73.

“Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good”: N. Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. G. Bull (New York: Penguin, 2003), chap. XV, 42.

In a series of controversial papers, physiological psychologist Steve Porges has made the case that the vagus nerve is the nerve of compassion: Stephen P. Porges, “Orienting in a Defensive World: Mammalian Modifications of our Evolutionary Heritage: A Polyvagal Theory,” Psychophysiology 42 (1995): 301–17, and “Love: an Emergent Property of the Mammalian Autonomic Nervous System, Psychoendocrinology 23 (1998): 837–61.

people systematically sigh: June Gruber, Christopher Oveis, Jeffrey Newell, and Dacher Keltner, “Sighing and Compassion,” unpublished manuscript.

Historians of science have rated Charles Darwin as off-the-charts in terms of kindness and warmth: Frank J. Sulloway, Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives (New York: Pantheon, 1996).

amid the noisy, loving spectacle of his ten children: Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging.

James was the progenitor: James, “What Is an Emotion?”

Walter Cannon, a student of William James’s, was not so convinced by his advisor’s provocative armchair musings: W. B. Cannon, “The James–Lange Theory of Emotion: A Critical Examination and an Alternative Theory,” American Journal of Psychology 39 (1927): 106–24.

The blush, for example, peaks at about fifteen seconds: D. Shearn et al., “Facial Coloration and Temperature Responses in Blushing,” Psychophysiology 27 (1990): 687–93.

when people are asked to guess whether their heart rate has increased or decreased: J. W. Pennebaker and T. A. Roberts, “Toward a His and Hers Theory of Emotion: Gender Differences in Visceral Perception,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 11 (1992): 199–212.

One-day-old infants: G. G. Martin and R. D. I. Clark, “Distress Crying in Infants: Species and Peer Specificity,” Developmental Psychology 18 (1982): 3–9.

Many two-year-old children, upon seeing another cry: C. Zahn-Waxler, M. Radke-Yarrow, and R. A. King, “Child Rearing and Children’s Prosocial Initiations Towards Victims of Distress,” Child Development 50 (1979): 319–30; C. Zahn-Waxler et al., “Development of Concern for Others,” Developmental Psychology 28 (1992): 126–36.

Pictures of sad faces: P. J. Whalen et al., “Masked Presentations of Emotional Facial Expressions Modulate Amygdala Activity without Explicit Knowledge,” Journal of Neuroscience 18 (1998): 411–18.

So we asked first whether the exposure to harm would trigger activation in the vagus nerve: C. Oveis, E. J. Horberg, and D. Keltner, “Compassion and Pride as Moral Intuitions,” unpublished manuscript.

These measures yield an index called respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA): G. G. Berntson, J. T. Cacioppo, and K. S. Quigley, “Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia: Autonomic Origins, Physiological Mechanisms, and Psychophysiological Implications,” Psychophysiology 30 (1993): 183–96. Cacioppo et al., “The Psychophysiology of Emotion,” in Handbook of Emotions, 173–191.

In Singer’s words, evolution has “bequeath(ed) humans with a sense of empathy—an ability to treat other people’s interests”: Peter Singer, Expanding Circle (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981).

Take Paul Rusesabagina’s remarkable heroism during the genocide of Rwanda: Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (New York: Picador, 1998).