I love people who bring high ideals to their work. One of the people I admire the most is my graduate school advisor at UC Berkeley, Professor Dacher Keltner. He was a great advisor, professor, and researcher (even if he seemed to enjoy making me suffer during my dissertation). But the thing I have admired the most is that he has made a career out of studying human strengths, pro-social behavior, and what makes us all good.

He now edits a magazine called “Greater Good.” Each issue takes on a different question about human goodness. The Spring/Summer 2005 edition invited leading experts to weigh in on moral inspiration, and asked the question “is goodness contagious?” The next issue looked at empathy, why do we have it, and how does it make us act. The great thing about the magazine is that each of the authors is a expert and has often done years of research on the topic. To name a few, Franz de Waal wrote about empathy in primates, Johathan Haidt wrote about elevation (or being inspired by another’s positive action), and Philip Zimbardo wrote about heroism. Each distilled their years of research and knowledge in articles that are readable and inspirational without being cheesy or shorting the science.

Check the magazine out at www.greatergoodmag.org, you will learn something about human nature and it will make you feel (and maybe act) good.