The Compassionate Instinct

JONATHAN D. HAIDT, PH.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (Basic Books). His essay draws from his chapter in Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived (American Psychological Association), a book he coedited with Corey L. M. Keyes.

 

DACHER KELTNER, PH.D., executive editor of Greater Good magazine, is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the research director of the university’s Greater Good Science Center. He is the author of more than eighty scholarly articles and three books, most recently Born to Be Good (W. W. Norton).

 

ALFIE KOHN writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. His essay was originally adapted from Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishment to Love and Reason (Atria Books) for the Spring/Summer 2005 issue of Greater Good. For more information, see www.alfiekohn.org.

 

MICHAEL KOSFELD, PH.D., is a professor of business administration at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

 

AARON LAZARE, M.D., is chancellor, dean, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is a leading authority on the medical interview, the psychology of shame and humiliation, and apology. He is the author of many books, including On Apology (Oxford University Press).

 

FRED LUSKIN, PH.D., is the director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects and an associate professor at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology. He is the author of Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness (HarperSanFrancisco) and Forgive for Love: The Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Lasting Relationship (HarperCollins).

 

MEREDITH MARAN is the author or coauthor of eight books, including 50 Ways to Support Lesbian and Gay Equality (New World Library), Dirty: A Search for Answers inside America’s Teenage Drug Epidemic (HarperOne), and Class Dismissed: A Year in the Life of an American High School, a Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation (St. Martin’s Press). She writes features, essays, and book reviews for Playboy, Self, Real Simple, Mother Jones, Health, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Family Circle, among others. A different version of her essay originally appeared in More magazine.

 

JASON MARSH is the editor-in-chief of Greater Good magazine. Previously he was the managing editor of the quarterly journal The Responsive Community, and he is the coeditor (with Amitai Etzioni) of the anthology Rights vs. Public Safety after 9/11: America in the Age of Terrorism (Rowman and Littlefield). He has also worked as a documentary producer, kindergarten teacher, and public radio reporter and producer.

 

MICHAEL E. MCCULLOUGH, PH.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami, where he directs the Laboratory for Social and Clinical Psychology. His essay was originally excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct for the Spring 2008 issue of Greater Good.

 

NEERA MEHTA is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is also a former fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

 

KEITH OATLEY, PH.D., is a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He is the author of six books on psychology, including Emotions: A Brief History (Wiley Blackwell), and two novels, the first of which, The Case of Emily V. (Aquitus Books), won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel.

 

PAMELA PAXTON, PH.D., is an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University and the coauthor (with Melanie Hughes) of Women, Politics, and Power (Sage Publications).