Dacher Keltner
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Dacher Joseph Keltner is a Mexican-born American
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
at
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, who directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. He is also the founder and faculty director of the
Greater Good Science Center The Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) is a center located at the University of California, Berkeley. Introduction The center was founded by Dacher Keltner in 2001, with a donation from UC Berkeley alumni Thomas and Ruth Hornaday following the d ...
, host of the podcast '' The Science of Happiness'', and Chief Scientific Advisor of Hume AI.


Biography

Keltner was born in Jalisco,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, the offspring of two early members of the counterculture. Keltner's mother, a literature professor, and father, an artist, raised both him and his brother in
Laurel Canyon Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills region of the Santa Monica Mountains, within the Hollywood Hills West district of Los Angeles, California. The main thoroughfare of Laurel Canyon Boulevard connects the neighb ...
in the late 1960s. When his mother secured her first job as a professor in 1970, they moved to a conservative town in the foothills of the California Sierra Nevada. Keltner received his
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in psychology and
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
from the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
, in 1984, he received his
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
from Stanford University in 1989, and he completed three years of post-doctoral work with
Paul Ekman Paul Ekman (born February 15, 1934) is an American psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco who is a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He was ranked 59th out of ...
at the
University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...
.


Academic career

Keltner began his academic career at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
, and then returned to
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
's Psychology Department in 1996 attaining full professorship in 2002. His research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of compassion,
awe Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous. On Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions awe is modeled as a combination of surprise and fear. One dictionary definition is "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., ...
,
love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
,
beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...
, and
power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
, social class, and
social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...
. Keltner is the co-author of two textbooks, as well as the best-selling ''Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life'', ''The Compassionate Instinct'', and most recently, in May 2016, ''The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence''. Keltner has published over 190 scientific articles, he has written for ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
The London Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', SLATE, ''
Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...
'', and has received numerous national prizes and grants for his research. His research has been covered in ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'', ''The New York Times'', the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
,
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', and in many other outlets, and been a focus in two panels with the
Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
. His Science of Happiness MOOC at EdX has had over 300,000 enrollees. Keltner has received the outstanding teacher and research mentor awards from UC Berkeley, and seen 20 of his PhD students and post-doctoral fellows become professors. ''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
'' magazine recently rated his podcasts from his course ''Emotion'' as one of the five best educational downloads, and the ''
Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...
'' selected Keltner for one of its 50 2008 visionaries. Keltner has collaborated with directors at
Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...
, including film director and animator Pete Docter in preparation of his 2015 film '' Inside Out''. He has worked and continues to work with
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
engineers and designers on projects such as Facebook stickers and Facebook reactions. He has also worked on projects at Google on altruism and emotion, and was recently featured in
Tom Shadyac Thomas Peter Shadyac (born December 11, 1958) is an American director, screenwriter, producer, and author. The youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, Shadyac is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films '' Ace Ventura: P ...
’s movie ''I Am''. Keltner is also collaborating with the Sierra Club to get veterans and inner city kids outdoors. Building upon his experiences in a restorative justice program with prisoners in
San Quentin Prison San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...
, Keltner wrote a brief for a case – ''Ashker v. Governor of California'' – that led to the curtailment of solitary confinement in maximum-security prisons in California.


Theory of power

Together with Deborah H. Gruenfeld of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Cameron Anderson, psychologist at the
Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a public university i ...
at UC Berkeley, Keltner has developed the Approach/Inhibition Theory of Power, which aims to present an integrative account of the effects of power on human behavior, suggesting that the acquisition of power has a disinhibiting effect regarding the social consequences of exercising it.


Science of happiness

In his book ''Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life'', Keltner explores the science behind well-being. The book attempts to counter the bias that we are wired to be self-interested. Keltner explores the
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
idea of the ''jen'' ratio; the relationship between actions that bring the good of others to completion and those that bring out bad. The greater score is a direct relation to your happiness. In the book he touches on the qualities of gratitude, compassion, play, awe, embarrassment and teasing and how these qualities are innate in people but also can be developed.


Personal life

Keltner lives in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
,with his wife, Mollie McNeil, an alumna of UC Berkeley, and their two daughters Natalie and Serafina.


Books

* Keltner, Dacher. ''The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence''. Penguin, 2016. ; *Keltner, Dacher, Jason Marsh, and Jeremy Adam Smith, editors, ''The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness''. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2010. * Keltner, Dacher. ''Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life''. W. W. Norton, 2009. . * Keltner, Dacher, Keith Oatley, and Jennifer M. Jenkins. ''Understanding Emotions'' 3rd ed. ; prev. ed. published by Blackwell Publishers, 1996. *Gilovich, Thomas, Dacher Keltner, and Richard E. Nisbett. ''Social Psychology''. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006 ISBN


References


External links


Biography at the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory

''Greater Good Magazine''

Greater Good Science Center
* Video
Keltner discusses whether Technology Dependence is De-Evolving Human Emotion, Fora.tv
(Los Angeles Public Library, February 5, 2009) * Video:
We Are Built to Be Kind
', published on December 2, 2014 - Dacher Keltner challenges popular notions of human nature and seeks to explain why mammals evolved emotions such as empathy
Human Happiness Course by Keltner at UC Berkeley Webcasts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keltner, Dacher Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University of California, San Francisco alumni University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Stanford University alumni Positive psychologists