Greater Good Science Center Totally Explained

Everything about The Greater Good Science Center totally explained

The Greater Good Science Center, located at the University of California, Berkeley is an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the scientific understanding of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior. By studying individuals and their relationships, the center aims to promote well-being in society as a whole. The center was started in 2001 and serves to provide groundbreaking scientific discoveries, as well as translate and disseminate research for the general public.

Magazine

Professor Dacher Keltner, of the University of California, Berkeley, is the co-editor of the Center's quarterly magazine, Greater Good magazine. The magazine highlights scientific research into the roots of compassion and altruism. It fuses this science with stories of compassion in action, providing a bridge between social scientists and parents, educators, community leaders, and policy makers.

Contributors and editors

Editors and affiliates

Richard Davidson, Ph.D at University of Wisconsin-Madison, known for using rhesus monkeys as models of human neurophysiology and emotional response
Owen Flanagan, Ph.D and Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University
Amitai Etzioni, Israeli-American sociologist and author of 24 books
Paul Ekman, psychologist and pioneer in the study of emotions and facial expressions
Robert Frank, important figure in American philosophy and film
Jonathan Kozol, non-fiction writer, educator, activist on public education
Alfie Kohn, American lecturer and author on education, psychology, and parenting
Nel Noddings, Ph.D from Stanford, focuses on feminism, education, and philosophy
Frans de Waal,Ph.D, professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University

Past contributors

Daniel Goleman, internationally renowned author, psychologist, science journalist, and corporate consultant

Howard Gardner, developed theory of multiple intelligences

Arlie Hochschild, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, introduced ideas of feeling rules, time bind, and emotional labor

Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and laureate professor at University of Melbourne

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African cleric and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984

Michael Pollan, professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley

Barbara Ehrenreich, writer, columnist, feminist, and political activist

Rend al-Rahim Francke, former ambassador to Iraq, secularist trying to enable Iraq to transfer into a liberal democracy

Philip Zimbardo, psychologist known for the famous Stanford prison experiment and author of several psychology textbooks

Highlights

Forgiveness

The Fall 2004 Issue featured a cover with Archbishop Desmond Tutu's portrait along with his article titled "Why to Forgive." Drawing on situations from South Africa and several other scenarios, Tutu examined how forgiveness isn't only personally rewarding, but also politically necessary in allowing South Africa to have a new beginning. Moreover, Tutu stated that forgiveness isn't turning a blind eye to wrongs; true reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it's worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring healing.

Bystander Effect

The Fall/Winter 2006-2007 Issue feature an article on the Bystander Effect and explained why we sometimes shackle our moral instincts, and how we can set them free. Editors, Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., and Jason Marsh used the example of Kitty Genovese, a woman who was murdered while 38 witnesses heard her screams and did nothing to show the negative effects of the bystander effect. The editors examine how the bystander effect is involved in many modern activities; the bystander is a modern archetype from the Holocaust to the genocide in Rwanda, to the current environmental crisis. Keltner and Marsh also provide several remedies to the bystander effect, such as social psychology lectures about the causes of bystander behavior, and actions to take when you're in distress and need to attract the attention of other bystanders.

Reluctance to Kill

In the Summer 2007 Issue, Lt. Col. (ret.) Dave Grossman examines why the vast majority of people are overwhelmingly reluctant to take a human life. During World War II, a study was conducted to see on average, what percentage of American troops actually fired on the enemy. It was found that only 15-20 percent of the American riflemen in combat during World War II would fire directly at the enemy. Those who didn't fire elected to run or hide — in many cases they were willing to risk greater danger to rescue the injured or get ammunition. Grossman found that there was a reluctance to killing in many other war scenarios as well.
During the 19th-century, Ardant du Picq, a French military officer, documented the common tendency of soldiers to fire harmlessly into the air simply for the sake of firing. In response to this, the military today trains its soldiers to see the enemy as targets, not as fellow humans. The military will even use red paint or ketchup to simulate blood when soldiers hit a target. This type of desensitization process may explain why a highly trained force can often overwhelm an untrained militia; for example, 18 trapped U.S. troops killed an estimated 364 Somali fighters. Grossman continues to talk about re-sensitizing America and how killing must becoming increasingly rare for this to occur.

Notes and references

Bystander Effect
Forgiveness, Truth and Reconciliation
Hope on the Battlefield

Further Information

Get more info on 'Greater Good Science Center'.

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