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Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life Hardcover – January 12, 2009

by Dacher Keltner (Author)

25 customer reviews

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A new examination of the surprising origins of human goodness.

In Born to Be Good, Dacher Keltner demonstrates that humans are not hardwired to lead lives that are "nasty, brutish, and short"―we are in fact born to be good. He investigates an old mystery of human evolution: why have we evolved positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and are the fabric of cooperative societies?By combining stories of scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy, Keltner illustrates his discussions with more than fifty photographs of human emotions. Born to Be Good is a profound study of how emotion is the key to living the good life and how the path to happiness goes through human emotions that connect people to one another.60 photographs

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Product Details

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (January 12, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 039306512X
ISBN-13: 978-0393065121
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #143 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Good & Evil
- #954 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Neuropsychology
- #1025 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions

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Customer Reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars

5 star		44%
4 star		20%
3 star		12%
2 star		8%
1 star		16%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

A comprehensive account of the emotions of love, compassion, and awe

By Robert Miller on June 8, 2015

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This book includes a breadth of examples from many cultures, art, and literature from the time of the Greeks to the modern period on the meaning of facial expressions and the effects of neuropeptides on the emotions that makes it easy and engaging to read. The focus is on the jen ratio (the balance of good and bad in one's life). The notes are invaluable for further reading on the smile, embarrassment, laughter, touch, and love among animals and humans, showing the common threads that link all of us.

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A Great Read and Act

By Deborah on April 17, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

On my top reads list.

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136 of 147 people found the following review helpful

Hold the Botox

By Jay C. Smith on March 14, 2009

Format: Hardcover

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.Read more ›

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

Facial muscle movement conveys much more than language!

By Barbara S. Reeves on March 1, 2011

Format: Paperback

Time and time again, studies have shown that what makes us happy is the quality of our romantic bonds, the health of our families, the time we spend with good friends, and the connection we feel to communities. The Dalai Lama said, "If you want to be happy, practice compassion; if you want others to be happy, practice compassion." "Born to be Good" by Dacher Keltner, who is professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, postulates that our capacity for good is programmed into our brains and bodies.

Keltner has developed what he calls "jen" science. The Confucian concept of "jen" refers to a complex mixture of kindness, humanity, and respect that transpires between people. Keltner's "jen" science is the study of facial expressions, patterns of touch, and tones of voice. He uses neuroscience, evolution, psychology, and Eastern thought to explain how we evolved to be good.

And this is the third book I've read recently that deals with Paul Eckman's Facial Action Coding System (FACS). It was discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" and "Social Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman. FACS is a method of identifying, frame by frame, facial muscle movement to detect emotional expression during social interaction. Apparently we express emotions in millisecond bursts of facial muscle movement which conveys much more than language can with its inherent limits. Ekman also proved that facial expression is cross-cultural - all humans express the same emotions using the same facial muscle movements.

In chapters devoted to "pro-social" emotional displays such as smile, laughter, tease, compassion, and awe, Keltner shines new light on the exact meaning of certain emotional displays.Read more ›

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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Psychology and Sociology come together

By DAW on October 20, 2009

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

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

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Great!

Published 8 months ago by Seelaratana Anu

Read Something Else

Spurious references to "scientific" experiments and a writing style that borders on nauseating make this book difficult to slog through. Read more

Published 9 months ago by John

GREAT work! Fascinating!

this is a fascinating and fabulous book.Professor Keltner succeeds in advancing a fascinating extension of the work of Darwin. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Daniel Mulhern

Much to my disappointment, I found a lot of the images/photos crucial...

This comment is related to the Kindle format only.

When I was reading Ch.3 of my Kindle copy I was puzzled why "two facial displays below" referred to in the... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Wai Man Sin

Kindle Edition doesn't contain the images of faces that are in the...

This review only applies to the kindle edition and the missing content. I love buying books for my kindle but already owning the printed copy, I could see there were many images... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Rod E. Sherwin

Not as good as the Righteous Mind

I chose this book based on the authors academic credentials and his connection to Jonathan Haidt.
There are a few good ideas. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Bob from Portland

excellent book for psych student

the book is amazing for psychology students. it takes an evolutionary approach and social approach. it is an excellent book for psychology student. Read more

Published 18 months ago by santy ventura

Fascinating

I really enjoyed this book for several reasons, not the least of which is the positive slant on human emotion instead of the constant barrage of negative and cynical information we... Read more

Published 22 months ago by Patrice Stancato

Very Interresting

I found the above reviews by Virgelio Carpo and Jay C. Smith to be very accurate descriptions of the book. Read more

Published on January 27, 2013 by Milton L. Erhardt

Altruism is an instinct

Dacher Keltner has presented the best evidence that I have seen that altruism is one of our deepest instincts. Read more

Published on December 3, 2011 by StanEvolve