Luminary: Dacher Keltner

Luminary: Dacher Keltner

Dacher Keltner received his BA in Psychology and Sociology from UC Santa Barbara in 1984 and his PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University in 1989. He then was a post-doctoral fellow for three years at UC San Francisco working with Paul Ekman. In 1992 he took his first academic job, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then returned to Berkeley’s Psychology Department in 1996, where he is now a full professor.

Dacher’s research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of human goodness, with a special concentration on compassion, awe, love, and beauty, as well as the study of power, status and social class, and the nature of moral intuitions. Dacher is the co-author of two best selling textbooks, one on human emotion, the other on social psychology, and in January, 2009, will publish Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, with WW Norton Publishers, which makes the case for an evolutionary approach to the emotions that promote human goodness. Dacher has published over 100 scientific articles, and has received numerous national prizes and grants for his research, and for his teaching and mentoring was selected as the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor in 2002, and the Outstanding Teacher, Division of Social Sciences, in 2002 as well. Dacher also serves as the Director of the Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, where he serves as co-editor of the center’s magazine, Greater Good. Dacher lives in Berkeley with his wife, an alumna of Berkeley, and their two daughters.