Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

Emotional Intelligence was a phenomenon, selling more than five million copies worldwide. Now, in Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman explores an emerging science with startling implications for our interpersonal world. Its most amazing discovery: we are "wired to connect", designed for sociability, constantly engaged in a "neural ballet" that connects us, brain to brain, with those around us.

Far more than we are consciously aware, our daily encounters shape our brains and affect cells throughout our bodies. Our reactions to others send out cascades of hormones that regulate everything from our hearts to our immune systems, making good relationships act like vitamins, and bad relationships like poisons. Here, Daniel Goleman explains how we can use our astonishing capacity for "mindsight" to answer some of life's most essential questions: Is there a way to raise our children to be happy? What is the basis of a nourishing marriage? How can business leaders and teachers inspire the best in those they lead and teach? How can groups divided by prejudice and hatred come to live together in peace?

Goleman's heartening news is that humans have a built-in bias toward empathy, cooperation, and altruism, provided we develop the social intelligence to nurture these capabilities in ourselves and others.