The war for kindness : building empathy in a fractured world / Jamil Zaki.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The surprising mobility of human nature -- Choosing empathy -- Hatred versus contact -- The stories we tell -- Caring too much -- Kind systems -- The digital double edge -- The future of empathy -- Appendix A: What is empathy? -- Appendix B: Evaluating the evidence.

"A Stanford psychologist offers a bold new understanding of empathy, and shows how we can expand our circle of care, even in these divisive times. Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who aren't just like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States is suffering from an "empathy deficit." Since then, things only seem to have gotten worse. It doesn't have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki argues that empathy is not a fixed trait - something we're born with or not - 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 -fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances."--Book jacket.