altruistic action is a defense mechanism by which we ward off deeper, unflattering, anxiety-producing revelations about the self: G. Valiant, “Natural History of Male Psychological Health—V: The Relation of Choice of Ego Mechanisms of Defense to Adult Adjustment, Archives of General Psychiatry 42 (1976): 597–601.
In an essay on the sublime and the beautifuclass="underline" Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, 58.
To set the stage for his empirical studies: Batson and Shaw, “Evidence for Altruism.” Nancy Eisenberg et al., “Relation of Sympathy and Distress to Prosocial Behavior.”
In a first study: Batson et al., “Self-Reported Distress and Empathy and Egoistic versus Altruistic Motivation for Helping,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45 (1983): 706–18.
This age-old question motivated Batson’s next study: J. Fultz et al., “Social Evaluation and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (1983): 761–69.
just this kind of data: Nancy Eisenberg et al., “Relation of Sympathy and Personal Distress to Prosocial Behavior,” and “Differentiation of Personal Distress and Sympathy in Children and Adults,” Developmental Psychology 24 (1988): 766–75.
Our tendencies to experience specific emotions: Carol Z. Malatesta, “The Role of Emotions in the Development and Organization of Personality,” in Socioemotional Development: Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, ed. Ross A. Thompson (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 1–56.
the longitudinal studies of Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan: J. Kagan, J. S. Reznick, and N. Snidman, “Biological Bases of Childhood Shyness,” Science 240 (1988): 167–71; C. E. Schwartz et al., “Inhibited and Uninhibited Infants ‘Grown Up’: Adult Amygdalar Response to Novelty,” Science 300 (2003): 1952–53.
Avshalom Caspi studied the adult lives of shy individuals: A. Caspi, G. Elder, and D. J. Bem, “Moving Away from the World: Life-Course Patterns of Shy Children,” Developmental Psychology 24 (1988): 824–31.
In one study, Chris Oveis and I: C. Oveis et al., “Vagal Tone as a Biological Marker of Social Connection,” unpublished manuscript.
Nancy Eisenberg has found that: N. Eisenberg et al., “The Relations of Children’s Dispositional Empathy-Related Responding to their Emotionality, Regulation, and Social Functioning,” Developmental Psychology 32 (1996): 195–209, and “The Role of Emotionality and Regulation in Children’s Social Functioning: A Longitudinal Study,” Child Development 66 (1995): 1360–84.
College students with higher resting vagal tone: Eisenberg et al., “The Relations of Emotionality and Regulation to Dispositional and Situational Empathy-Related Responding,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66 (1994): 776–97.
Following the loss of a married partner: M. F. O’Connor, J. J. B. Allen, and A. W. Waszniak, “Emotional Disclosure for Whom? A Study of Vagal Tone in Bereavement,” Biological Psychology 68 (2005): 135–46.
And on the other end of the continuum: T. Beauchaine, “Vagal Tone, Development, and Gray’s Motivational Theory: Toward an Integrated Model of Autonomic Nervous System Functioning in Psychopathology,” Development and Psychopathology 13 (2001): 183–214.
an inspiration to James: In several places James expresses admiration for the open-spirited character of Walt Whitman. W. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, (New York: Collier, 1902/1961), 88–89.
The vulnerability of our offspring: Hrdy, Mother Nature.
an instinct to care: Taylor, The Tending Instinct.
When parents look at pictures of their new babies: J. B. Nitschke et al., “Orbitofrontal Cortex Tracks Positive Mood in Mothers Viewing Pictures of Their Newborn Infants,” Neuroimage 21, no. 2 (2004): 583–92.
the evocative power of the baby: Diane Berry and Leslie Zebrowtiz-McArthur have done terrific work on “neotony,” or baby-faced appearance, which relates to all kinds of trustworthy perceptions and forgiving behaviors in others. D. Berry, and L. Z. McArthur, “Perceiving Character in Faces: The Impact of Age-Related Craniofacial Changes on Social Perception,” Psychological Bulletin 100 (1986): 3–18.
the victory goes to the kind: Miller, The Mating Mind, chap. 9.
the largest study of mate preferences ever undertaken: D. M. Buss, “Sex Differences in Human Mate Preference: Evolutionary Hypothesis Tested in 37 Cultures,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (1989): 1–49.
Darwin long ago surmised: Darwin, Descent, 130.
groups fare better when comprised of kind individuals: In support of this claim we have found that groups tend to select outgoing individuals who advance the interests of other group members as leaders. Group members also systematically identify unkind, Machiavellian types in gossip, to keep track of who poses threats to the interests of other group members. D. Keltner et al., “A Reciprocal Influence Model of Social Power: Emerging Principles and Lines of Inquiry,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 40, ed. M. Zanna (New York: Academic Press, 2008), 151–92.
In a study that explored this reasoning: C. Oveis et al., “Vagal Tone, Trust, and Generosity,” unpublished manuscript.
what unites the ethics of the world’s religions: Armstrong, The Great Transformation, chap. 7.
evolutionists would converge on a similar answer: Robert Trivers, Robert Frank, and Elliot Sober and David Sloan-Wilson have all argued how moral emotions like gratitude, compassion, and love bind individuals into cooperative bonds. Trivers, “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism,” Quarterly Review of Biology 46 (1971): 35–57. See also Frank, Passions Within Reason; E. Sober and D. S. Wilson, Unto Others.
“My pedagogy is hard”: Alice Miller, For Your Own Good: The Roots of Violence in Child-Rearing, trans. Hildegarde Hannum and Hunter Hannum (London: Virago, 1987).
When Richie and Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues: R. J. Davidson et al., “Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation,” Psychosomatic Medicine 65 (2003): 564–70.
the kinds of environments that cultivate compassion: Nancy Eisenberg has written an excellent summary of the kinds of environmental factors that cultivate compassion. N. Eisenberg, “Empathy-Related Emotional Responses, Altruism, and their Socialization,” in Visions of Compassion, 131–64.
Even visually presented concepts: M. Mikulincer et al., “Attachment, Caregiving, and Altruism: Boosting Attachment Security Increases Compassion and Helping,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89 (2005): 817–39.