Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

There are still many mysteries to Asperger’s Syndrome: Marian Sigman and Lisa M. Capps, Children with Autism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997); U. Frith, F. Happe, and F. Siddons, “Autism and Theory of Mind in Everyday Life,” Social Development 3, no. 2 (1994): 108–24.

as revealed in the brilliant essay by music critic Tim Page: T. Page, “Parallel Play: A Lifetime of Restless Isolation Explained,” The New Yorker, August 20, 2007.

And teasing: E. A. Heerey et al., “Understanding Teasing: Lessons from Children with Autism,” Journal of Child Abnormal Psychology 33 (2005): 55–68.

TOUCH

 

For the past fifteen years: mind and life dialogues, www.mindandlife.org.

the Dalai Lama has been engaging: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “Understanding Our Fundamental Nature,” in Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists, ed. R. Davidson and A. Harrington (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 66–80.

an answer is found in the contagious goodness hypothesis: I summarize these ideas in greater detail elsewhere. D. Keltner, “The Compassionate Instinct,” Greater Good 1 (2004): 6–9. The ideas I summarize as part of the viral goodness hypothesis found inspiration in several sources. Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (New York: Basic Books, 1971); R. L. Trivers, “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism,” Quarterly Review of Biology 46 (1984): 35–57; Frank, Passions Within Reason; Sober and Wilson, Unto Others.

Desmond Morris’s famous phrasing: Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal (New York: Dell, 1967).

As Nina Jablonski has argued: Jablonski, Skin, 39–42.

several functions essential to human survival: For an outstanding summary of the function of the skin, see ibid.

we learned to signal different objects and states with what are known as emblems: For one of the first taxonomies of expressive behavior, including gestures, see Ekman and Friesen, “The Repertoire of Nonverbal Behavior: Categories, Origins, Usage and Coding,” Semiotica 1 (1969): 49–98.

The progenitor of this view: Rolls, The Brain and Emotion.

in one study participants received a fifteen-minute Swedish massage: R. A. Turner et al., “Preliminary Research on Plasma Oxytocin in Normal Cycling Women: Investigating Emotion and Interpersonal Distress,” Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 62 (1999): 97–113.

Other studies have found that massage: For a terrific summary of all facets of touch, see Tiffany Field, Touch (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).

Recent studies have found that rat mothers: D. Francis and M. J. Meaney, “Maternal Care and the Development of Stress Responses,” Development 9 (1999): 128–34.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is involved in the pursuit of rewards: A. G. Phillips et al., “Neurobiological Correlates of Positive Emotional States: Dopamine, Anticipation, and Reward,” in International Review of Studies on Emotion, vol. 2, ed. K. T. Strongman (New York: John Wiley, 1992), 31–50.

the benefits of touching are not limited to rat pups: For a comprehensive review of the dozens of studies of touch therapies, and the benefits they bring to premature babies, people suffering from depression, and ailments during aging, see Field, Touch.

when teachers are randomly assigned to touch some of their students and not others: D. C. Aguilera, “Relationship between Physical Contact and Verbal Interaction between Nurses and Patients, Journal of Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Services 5 (1967): 5–21; J. D. Fisher, M. Rytting, and R. Heslin, “Hands Touching Hands: Affective and Evaluative Effects of an Interpersonal Touch,” Sociometery 39 (1976): 416–21. For a review of the effects of touch, see M. J. Hertenstein et al., “The Communicative Functions of Touch in Humans, Nonhuman Primates, and Rats: A Review and Synthesis of the Empirical Research,” Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs 132 (2006): 5–94.

In her excellent book: Field, Touch.

mortality rates for infants: Ibid.

In a more systematic comparison: R. Spitz, “Hospitalism,” Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 1 (1945): 53–74.

Tiffany Field has found that massages given to premature babies lead, on average, to a 47 percent increase in weight gain: Field reviews several studies, including those from her lab, which replicate this important finding. Field, Touch.