The document discusses the importance of social relationships for well-being, emphasizing that chronic loneliness significantly increases the risk of early death. It highlights key factors contributing to happiness, such as positivity, resilience, and connection, and outlines the role of organizations in fostering a compassionate and engaged community. Ultimately, it advocates for cultivating norms that promote pro-social behaviors through various means of cooperation and emotional awareness.

1. Creating a Safe & Engaged
Online Community
Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Science Director
Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley

2. Social Life & Well-Being
“Social relationships … do not guarantee high happiness but it does
not appear to occur without them.” (Ed Diener)
“SBT suggests the human brain expects access to social
relationships that mitigate risk and diminish the level of effort
needed to meet a variety of goals.”
“When you allow for all the other factors, you find that chronic
loneliness increases the odds of an early death by 20%.”
(John Cacioppo)
(James Coan & David Sbarra)

3. The Science of Happiness
• Positivity: gratitude, humor, awe, optimism, play, savoring…
• Resilience: meaning, purpose, emoversity, flexible awareness…
• Connection: empathy, compassion, kindness, trust, humility reconciliation…

6. (Rand & Greene)

7. (Aknin & Dunne)

8. The Science of Happiness
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Good Very Good Excellent Exceptional
Mean Peer Persona Factor Score
Quality of Relationship Between Student and Peer
Students Rated as Pro-Social are Most Likely to
be in Exceptional Relationships
positive
pro-social
anti-social

9. Working with Facebook
Fostering:
• emotional awareness
• empathy
• social resolution
• trust

10. Working with Facebook
Creating norms of:
• social and emotional intelligence
• upstanding and social support
• rich, authentic and diverse
expression

12. Safe, Engaged Communities
“Compassion becomes organizational, rather than individual,
when it is legitimized within an organizational context and
propagated among organization members…compassion in
organizations occurs when individuals in organizations collectively
notice, feel, and respond to human pain in a coordinated way.”
(Kim Cameron)

13. Safe, Engaged Communities

14. Safe, Engaged Communities
Make Pro-sociality Observable,
Highlight Effectiveness, and
Don’t Let ‘em Hide
• Model self-awareness and authenticity
• Publicly acknowledge pro-social
values, experiences and behaviors
like gratitude, generosity and
compassion

15. Safe, Engaged Communities
Normalize, Brand and Scaffold
“Habits of Virtue”
• pro-social intentions
• clear steps to cooperation
• multiple means to cooperation and
resolution of conflict
• pre-choosing kindness

16. Thank You
Find us at:
• greatergood.berkeley.edu
• GG101x: The Science of Happiness on edX.org
• Greater Good In Action: ggia.berkeley.edu