Sublime

“If I wanted to predict your happiness, and I could know only one thing about you, I wouldn’t want to know your gender, religion, health, or income. I’d want to know about your social network—about your friends and family, and the strength of your bonds with them.”

In 2007 researchers Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler published a study that revealed that our attitudes and behaviors have more impact on the people around us than we’d ever previously thought.

view. For instance, in the mid-1700s David Hume wrote a lot about the “natural benevolence” of human beings. And a century later, even Charles Darwin himself attributed an “instinct of sympathy” to our species. But

the quality of our lives and the health of our society depends, to a large degree, on how well we treat each other in the minute interactions of daily life.