The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World

'In a time when it seems empathy is a lost cause and compassion is a dying art, it may not be too late to revive the better angels of our nature. Jamil Zaki is one of the brightest lights in psychology, and in this gripping book he shows that kindness is not a sign of weakness but a source of strength' Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, Originals and Option B (with Sheryl Sandberg)

These are divisive times. Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who aren't like us but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago.

It doesn't have to be this way. Psychologist and neuroscientist Jamil Zaki argues that empathy is not a fixed trait from birth but rather a skill that we can all strengthen through effort.

Drawing on both classic and cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, Zaki shows how we can harness this new mindset to overcome toxic cultural divisions. He also tells the stories of people who are living these principles and fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing novels with the judge who sentenced them, police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, and nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don't succumb to burnout.

Written with clarity and passion, The War for Kindness is an inspiring call to action. Our future may depend on whether we accept the challenge.

Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Yorker and The Atlantic.