The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World

Empathy is in short supply. Isolation & 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. 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 shares cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, showing that empathy is not a fixed trait--something we're born with or not--but rather a skill that can be strengthened through effort. He also tells the stories of people who embody this new perspective, 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, Washington police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, & NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don't succumb to burnout.

Written with clarity & passion,The War for Kindnessis an inspiring call to action. The future may depend on whether we accept the challenge.

Advance praise forThe War for Kindness

"With alarming evidence of our society's rapidly diminishing empathy, Zaki draws on decades of clinical research, along with experiments conducted at his lab, to consider the forces that impact our modern condition... an urgent message."--Kirkus Reviews

"In this landmark book, Jamil Zaki gives us a revolutionary perspective on empathy: Empathy can be developed, and, when it is, people, relationships, organizations, & cultures are changed."--Carol Dweck, author ofMindset