many a civilized man, or even boy, who never before risked his life for
another, but full of courage and sympathy, has disregarded the instinct
of self-preservation, and plunged at once into a torrent to save a drown-
ing man, though a stranger. ... Such actions as the above appear to be the
simple result of the greater strength of the social or maternal instincts
rather than that of any other instinct or motive.In his marvelous 2009 book Born to Be Good, Dacher Keltner
presents a large body of recent research in support of the thesis that
prosocial emotions are what matter most in human behavior. Al-
though it is true that human conflict is pervasive, humans also have
highly refined emotional abilities to preempt and to resolve conflict.
We excel at laughter, play, love, gratitude, compassion, and forgive-
ness. We are experts at cooperating with our fellow beings.
Ongoing research is increasingly demonstrating positive and
prosocial emotions to be associated with measures of human flour-
ishing and mental and physical health. Furthermore, what is called
“mindfulness meditation’—training and practice in bringing one’s
awareness repeatedly back to a focus of attention, such as the breath
—has been associated with manifestations of prosocial emotion
and emotional balance, decreases in measures of depression and
anxiety, decreased perceived stress, and enhanced functioning of
the immune system. Other aspects of meditative training have been
associated with increases in measures of emotional well-being and
even in improvement in measures of cellular flourishing (telomere
length and telomerase activity). Such things speak to looking toward
the development of training programs that could be implemented in
schools and workplaces that would contribute to reducing stress and
increasing social and emotional well-being. Such programs could fos-
ter the kinds of skills that will ultimately lead to decreases in need for