Creating a Safe & Engaged Online Community

Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Science Director Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley

Social Life & Well-Being“Social relationships … do not guarantee high happiness but it does not appear to occur without them.” (Ed Diener)

“SBT suggests the human brain expects access to social relationships that mitigate risk and diminish the level of effort needed to meet a variety of goals.”

“When you allow for all the other factors, you find that chronic loneliness increases the odds of an early death by 20%.”

(John Cacioppo)

(James Coan & David Sbarra)

The Science of Happiness

• Positivity: gratitude, humor, awe, optimism, play, savoring…

• Resilience: meaning, purpose, emoversity, flexible awareness…

• Connection: empathy, compassion, kindness, trust, humility reconciliation…

(Rand & Greene)

(Aknin & Dunne)

The Science of Happiness

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QualityofRelationshipBetweenStudentandPeer

StudentsRatedasPro-SocialareMostLikelytobeinExceptionalRelationships

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Working with Facebook

Fostering: • emotional awareness • empathy • social resolution • trust

Working with Facebook

Creating norms of: • social and emotional intelligence • upstanding and social support • rich, authentic and diverse

expression

Safe, Engaged Communities

“Compassion becomes organizational, rather than individual, when it is legitimized within an organizational context and propagated among organization members…compassion in organizations occurs when individuals in organizations collectively notice, feel, and respond to human pain in a coordinated way.” (Kim Cameron)

Safe, Engaged Communities

Safe, Engaged CommunitiesMake Pro-sociality Observable, Highlight Effectiveness, and Don’t Let ‘em Hide • Model self-awareness and authenticity • Publicly acknowledge pro-social

values, experiences and behaviors like gratitude, generosity and compassion

Safe, Engaged Communities

Normalize, Brand and Scaffold “Habits of Virtue” • pro-social intentions • clear steps to cooperation • multiple means to cooperation and

resolution of conflict • pre-choosing kindness

Thank YouFind us at:

• greatergood.berkeley.edu

• GG101x: The Science of Happiness on edX.org

• Greater Good In Action: ggia.berkeley.edu