The Greater Good Science Center is an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the scientific understanding of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior. By studying individuals and their relationships, we aim to promote well-being in society as a whole.

The mission of the Center remains essentially unchanged from its start in 2001. While serving the traditional tasks of a UC Berkeley Organized Research Unit — fostering groundbreaking scientific discoveries — the Center also translates and disseminates research for the general public.

Our intention is to expand social well-being in the world. We do this by studying the social and biological roots of positive emotions and behaviors, and by distributing relevant findings to practitioners and members of the general public who can apply them to their professional and personal lives. Our research agenda engages scholars in multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, public policy, social welfare, public health, law, and organizational behavior. Our publications and websites provide a bridge between social scientists and the general public.

Our affiliation with UC Berkeley makes us strongly positioned to be a leader in the science of social well-being. The excellence of Berkeley's academic departments and programs creates an outstanding multidisciplinary environment for pioneering research, and Berkeley's exceptionally talented scientists excel at taking research out of the lab and applying it to real-world issues.

OUR BELIEFS

The Center's strategic plan establishes our goals and objectives and defines the direction the Center will take over the next few years. Our core beliefs, identified below, inform all of our work.

We believe:

• The human inclination toward goodness is strong, but it can be strengthened by specific social conditions.
• The good of society as a whole can be promoted through the science of positive and "prosocial" emotions and behaviors — for example, by studying emotions and behaviors such as compassion, respect, joy, trust, love, empathy, gratitude, and tolerance.
• People who possess the inner resources necessary for their own emotional well-being will help foster social well-being through their behaviors toward others. At the same time, social harmony helps foster mental health at the individual level.
• Similarly, social well-being in our communities begins with well-being in children and families.
• Promoting the skills, knowledge, and environments necessary for individual emotional well-being also promotes altruism, compassion, and well-being in society as a whole, for one's personal feelings of self-worth and inner-peace help imbue one with a sense of purpose and obligation to others.