Daniel Goleman

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Daniel Goleman’s lecture. If you don’t already know he’s the author of numerous best sellers including Emotional Intelligence (E.I).

In the hour he covered the core principals of E.I, discussed his new book ‘Focus’, and presented some interesting research findings- too much to write in a short blog- so here’s my highlights:
The news and media we are exposed to, with it’s focus on crisis, suffering and ‘bad’ stuff’,  is completely written and delivered to trigger the Amygdala; the part of our brain which is focused on looking out for threats.

In 1973 Darley and Batson asked theological students to prepare a sermon then to go to a nearby building to deliver it. One group were asked to present a sermon on the parable of the good samaritan,  who crosses the road to help an injured man whilst others, including ‘good, holy’ people, just pass by. The others were given another text.

Once they’d finished preparing, they left the building and walked along a path to the hall where they were due to deliver it. On that path they came across a person that the researchers had  purposefully positioned there, who was weeping with distress and pain.

The researchers were interested in who stopped to help…What do you think they found?

Go to this link for the answer