Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life |  | Author: Dacher Keltner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 29562
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0393337138
Dewey Decimal Number: 576
EAN: 9780393337136
ASIN: 0393337138
Publication Date: October 5, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“A landmark book in the science of emotions and its implications for ethics and human universals.”—Library Journal, starred review In this startling study of human emotion, Dacher Keltner investigates an unanswered question of human evolution: If humans are hardwired to lead lives that are “nasty, brutish, and short,” why have we evolved with positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and cooperative societies? Illustrated with more than fifty photographs of human emotions, Born to Be Good takes us on a journey through scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy. Positive emotions, Keltner finds, lie at the core of human nature and shape our everyday behavior—and they just may be the key to understanding how we can live our lives better. 60 photos.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Psychology and Sociology come together October 20, 2009
DAW (Austin, TX)
Keltner has done a masterful job of showing us how socialization really works. We are not entirely a blank slate and not entirely not one. We have a hard-wired capacity to learn language, pretty much everyone knows this by now, but we also have a hard-wired capacity to create community solidarity, and culture. We are far more inclined to attach and bond than to fight -- within our small community, at least. Keltner nails down exactly how this manifests bio-chemically. How the rational part of our brain develops, and can only develop, through social interaction, how it produces chemical rewards when we get it right, and how incredibly adaptive to our environment this makes us. He hints at, but does not quite explore the idea that when one community dominates and exploits another (where "others" are concerned, the drive to bond competes about equally with the drive to out-survive -- another theme Kelter hints at and might have explored in more depth), the dominators may quite cleverly institute policies that disrupt community connectivity among the dominated. For example, Puritans proscriptions against hugging, kissing, dancing and singing surely enhanced the ability of controlling elites to manage somewhat demoralized masses. But the book including this kind of speculation, and many others implied by recent discoveries in attachment and brain plasticity research remains to be written. Maybe Kelter will do it
Evolutionary Arrows Point to Being Good September 1, 2009
Virgelio Carpio (Middletown, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Darwin's theory of evolution says that through a process called "natural selection" those that cannot adapt to the environment eventually become extinct. Fossils around the globe confirm this. In light of this theory, one might think that the strong will always survive and overpower the weak out of existence. Genes by their nature, therefore, are selfish because all they want to do is propagate.
Since we are all made from genes, some believe that we, too, as a species are selfish by nature. As the book states, our every action is designed to maximize wealth. We help others expecting we would in turn receive help someday. We would satisfy the "pleasure centers" of our brains through sex, drug, money, self-interest, or any other means anytime we could. "Thou shalt not kill" implies that murder is in our blood and therefore the need for such a commandment in the first place. In the greater scheme of an evolutionary wilderness, acts of kindness toward others are simply aberrations or misfires in the brain.
The book disagrees.
Darwin himself observed that sympathetic communities are more likely to produce healthier offspring than cruel ones. Human history shows that compassion always pulls through in times of war. And new studies of our body's physiology show that caretaking emotions are wired within our nervous systems.
As a species, we evolved at some point to walk on two feet. In doing so, the female's birth canal narrowed. Our babies therefore have to be born small in order to pass through the smaller opening. In comparison to other animals whose newborns can walk upright the moment they're born, our babies need a long time of nursing -- at least eighteen months and continually at that all throughout the day -- before they can survive on their own. As a result, caregiving for the human species became a way of life.
Emotion has often been downplayed, restrained, indeed even belittled, in comparison to intellect. We must suppress emotion and let intellect roam free if we are to discover new things, solve life's riddles, and survive in an increasingly competitive and academic business world. Excitement, it is said, kills. Although true and essential when, say, doing a heart bypass, maneuvering a crippled jetliner into safe landing, or simply driving down the highway, we should not forget that -- as the book so plainly states -- had it not been for our emotions, we as a species might not be here today.
 Renown Scientist Proves It Again June 30, 2009
Sam I Am (Berkley, CA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Dacher Keltner is renown for his groundbreaking research on emotions and social psychology. He was a post-graduate student of Paul Ekman who is one of the fathers of facial expressions recognition.
Born to Be Good is well researched, much was done in the author's U.C. Berkeley laboratory and with collaborations. This book has been cited by many other psychologists and other authors as well.
Human evolution has instilled the need for high jen ratios, cooperation amongst family and community, gratitude, awe. Learning and doing what makes us happy enhances our lives.
I highly recommend this book and any work by Dacher Keltner.
 Goodness was Built-In by Someone May 12, 2009
Mohamed (Hayward, Ca.)
2 out of 26 found this review helpful
When I start reading a book, I usually just dive right into the middle and if I find something interesting, I go back to the beginning to read the whole book. I happened to land on page 58 which shows us a monkey evolving into a woman, and yes she was naked. This is where evolution has a problem. There are no other beings on this Earth that wear clothes besides humans. I wonder why it is that humans do not walk around naked like apes do and go up to strangers and hump like they do in the animal kingdom. Why is it looked down upon as immoral for random men and women to have sex? Could it be that we are a special creation who did not in fact evolve from animals but were designed by a creator?
This author makes it clear that thoughts like this are not allowed in his mind. He says "There are many books I would love to read, but alas, never will" on page 55. This is, in a nutshell, the reason why people have rigid beliefs that never change. They fail to go out and seek information from the other side because they believe they already have the truth so why bother. I agree with the premise of the author that goodness is inherent in all humans, but I am confident that it was hardwired into us by an intelligent designer. Goodness did not come out of thin air as the author believes.
There is a story in the book on page 226 of a young girl who was found alive under a pile of bodies during the Nazi regime. A doctor covered her with his coat when he saw her and the Germans thought about helping her and hiding her. But sadly, they ended up shooting her in the head. After reading this I immediately thought what kind of animals could do such a thing. Notice I said "animals." The Nazis believed in Eugenics. Hitler was a fan of Darwin just like this author is and he thought highly of Darwin's survival of the fittest theory. Darwinian research did not support the killing off of the weaker species but Darwin introduced the world to Natural Selection and Hitler came along and put it to work on humans. I recommend everyone read From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany by Richard Weikart to learn more about the "goodness" that Darwin and evolution has given us.
 Hold the Botox March 14, 2009
Jay C. Smith (Portland, OR USA)
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
Born to Be Good
Born to Be Good is something less than the subtitle (The Science of a Meaningful Life) suggests. More accurately, it covers the science of certain selected emotions and, more narrowly still, primarily the research of certain psychologists, bolstered by a bit of neuroscience. Most specifically, it focuses in large part (although not exclusively) on the work of Paul Ekman (the author's mentor) and the research of Keltner himself (along with his students).
Ekman was a pioneer in developing a technique to match facial expressions to associated emotions. He found that several basic emotions -- such as anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, and happiness -- register in the same facial muscle actions across cultures. Keltner has carried on in this tradition.
Following Jonathan Haidt and others, Keltner's larger thesis is that evolution has honed moral intuitions into embodied emotions that abet the development of morality and communal cooperation. For instance, one can easily see the social benefits of compassion, and the research shows it to correlate to activity in the vagus nerve, a bodily system which developed deep in our mammalian past.
So far, so good. However, Keltner stretches the point to claim that we have evolved a set of emotions that enable us to live a meaningful life, and that, "The key to happiness is to let these emotions arise, to see them fully in oneself and others, and to train the eye and mind in that practice." He proposes what he calls a "jen ratio" to reflect the balance between the "good and uplifting" and the "bad and cynical."
The problem is that he pretty much drops these more ambitious propositions after raising them in Chapter 1. There is no discussion of what a "meaningful life" might be other than one filled with positive emotions. Is meaningfulness simply just happiness? Nor is there a further explication of the "jen ratio," of how the positive emotions might be weighed against the negative ones, for instance. And there is little more on what practices, Zen or otherwise, might contribute to a more favorable jen. If the emotions are biologically established, how can we do much to alter the ratio of their expression in our lives?
Keltner's argument is impaired by the relative lack of attention he gives to the negative emotions. Are these too not also rooted in evolution? There is a case to be made for how anger and the retributive impulse, for instance, might also contribute to social bonding. How would that play out in a jen ratio? Keltner seems to be suggesting we would be better off without the negative emotions. But, if so, why did they evolve?
On the other hand, Born to Be Good has a great deal of merit in what it does cover. Depending on your starting point, if you read it you may learn a lot about how faces and, in some cases, touch or other body language communicate individuals' emotions, attitudes, and intent. Keltner offers informative chapters on embarrassment, smiles, laughter, teasing, and awe, for instance. The many illustrations are very helpful, especially those picturing different facial expressions.
I found the pages covering Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles especially interesting. You probably cannot fake a Duchenne smile, so you should not think you have fooled your hostess that you are enjoying her party when you are not. And if you are considering Botox treatments you may want to think twice. You may believe you will look prettier but, as Keltner points out, your partner(s) will receive fewer clues to your joy, love, and devotion.
I am giving this book three stars because I came to it expecting a more developed presentation of a "science of a meaningful life." If it had not promised quite so much I would have rated it higher (perhaps the subtitle is a tease, a behavior Keltner devotes a chapter to).
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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