GRI Faculty Affiliate explores how emotions such as gratitude, pride and compassion can make a society more resilient

What motivates people to accept sacrifice or persevere in the face of difficulty? To return a favor or to extend one?

These are some of the questions Global Resilience Institute (GRI) Faculty Affiliate and Northeastern University Professor of Psychology David DeSteno puts forth in an article written for the World Economic Forum.

“Moral emotions – ones like gratitude, compassion, and an authentic sense of pride (as opposed to hubris) – generate such virtuous actions,” DeSteno writes. “We pay people back because we feel grateful; we offer to help them because we feel compassion; we work hard to achieve a goal because we take pride in the result and the admiration of others. What unites these behaviors and many like them is the necessity of self-control. Each requires a willingness to sacrifice time, money, effort, or even happiness in the moment in order to build and maintain stable, productive, and supportive relationships that will benefit a person for years to come.”

To read the full article, visit the WEF website by clicking here

To explore the bios of GRI faculty affiliates, click here