The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code

by Michael E. McCullough

Overview

"A fine achievement."--Peter Singer, author of The Life You Can Save and The Most Good You Can Do
A sweeping psychological history of human goodness -- from the foundations of evolution to the modern political and social challenges humanity is now facing.
How did humans, a species of self-centered apes, come to care about others? Since Darwin, scientists have tried to answer this question using evolutionary theory. In The Kindness of Strangers, psychologist Michael E. McCullough shows why they have failed and offers a new explanation instead. From the moment nomadic humans first settled down until the aftermath of the Second World War, our species has confronted repeated crises that we could only survive by changing our behavior. As McCullough argues, these choices weren't enabled by an evolved moral sense, but with moral invention -- driven not by evolution's dictates but by reason.

Today's challenges -- climate change, mass migration, nationalism -- are some of humanity's greatest yet. In revealing how past crises shaped the foundations of human concern, The Kindness of Strangers offers clues for how we can adapt our moral thinking to survive these challenges as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541617520
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Michael McCullough is a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego. The winner of numerous distinctions for his research and writing, he is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He lives in La Jolla, California.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 A Golden Age of Compassion 1

Chapter 2 Adam Smith's Little Finger 11

Chapter 3 Evolutions Gravity 31

Chapter 4 It's All Relative 45

Chapter 5 For the Love of Spock 63

Chapter 6 The Big Payback 91

Chapter 7 The Age of Orphans 115

Chapter 8 The Age of Compassion 127

Chapter 9 The Age of Prevention 143

Chapter 10 The First Poverty Enlightenment 161

Chapter 11 The Humanitarian Big Bang 193

Chapter 12 The Second Poverty Enlightenment 217

Chapter 13 The Age of Impact 241

Chapter 14 Good Reasons 261

Acknowledgments 285

Notes 287

References 305

Index 341

Editorial Reviews

"A deliciously provocative analysis of an entirely admirable human quality."
―Kirkus (starred review)

"An inspiring and engrossing new look at human goodness. Without sentimentality or glibness, and wearing his depth and erudition lightly, McCullough enlightens us on when and why we care for others."―Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now

"This is a controversial book, but McCullough's arguments are smart, clear, and ultimately persuasive."―Paul Bloom, author of Against Empathy

"Enlightened by evocative anecdotes and well-explained theory, The Kindness of Strangers is as original as it is persuasive."―Richard Wrangham, author of The Goodness Paradox

"A fine achievement. McCullough expertly braids together the distinctive strands of evolutionary psychology, history, and philosophy to explore and explain a characteristic unique to our stage of development: kindness to strangers. An important book that looks at the whole of human history, and more, and thereby offers a valuable counterweight to the all-to-common view that everything is getting worse."― Peter Singer, author of The Life You Can Save and The Most Good You Can Do

"McCullough has brought an impressive breadth and depth of intellect to bear...McCullough's text constantly walks an intellectual tightrope - trying to not fall into a too-academic treatment on one side, or an oversimplified popularization of complex ideas on the other. Overall, he deftly maintains his balance. The takeaway message of his copious research - for individuals and nations alike - is akin to motherly advice: Getting where you want to be in life isn't just a matter of out-competing everyone; it's about co-operating with them, too."―Douglas J. Johnston, Winnipeg Free Press

From the Publisher

05/01/2020

McCullough (psychology, Univ. Calif. at San Diego; Beyond Revenge) reaches beyond his psychology credentials into the discipline of anthropology to analyze how humans developed the ability to care about other humans. He reasons that the kindness of strangers emerged over the past 10,000 years through seven different confrontations with mass suffering that created threats and opportunities that our ancestors responded to with the power of reasoning and developed compassion for others. Over time, continued progress in technology, science, and trade furnished humans with the strengthened attention to the needs of others. These ideas also surprisingly confounded by this reviewer's understanding of the author's seemingly mistaken concept that modern human primate behavior can be explained by instinct (nonlearned, inherited, genetically based patterns of action). Professional anthropologists and evolutionary scientists now agree that modern homo sapiens behavior is no longer driven by instincts but instead by a complex combination of emotional and biological drives, reflexes and reactions, innate capabilities and physical differences, rational reasoning, intelligent analysis, conscious free will, and an overall purposeful control of behavior. McCullough's work can serve as a bookend for Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers. VERDICT Recommended only for senior level students and researchers in anthropology and psychology curriculum.—Dale Farris, Groves, TX

Library Journal

★ 2020-03-01
Almost everyone applauds a good Samaritan, but this wasn’t always the case. Psychologist McCullough delivers a delightfully ingenious explanation of how we came around.

“Modern humans’ concern for the welfare of perfect strangers has no analog in the rest of the animal kingdom or even in our own history as a species,” writes the author. “It’s a true one-off.” An ant, wolf, lion, or chimpanzee who wanders into an unfamiliar group will be attacked and likely killed. Primitive humans were no different: “Our stone-age ancestors didn’t care very much at all about the well-being of true strangers.” Darwin maintained that natural selection evolved an instinct to help strangers in the hope of getting help in return and also to obtain praise from those around us. This instinct developed with the advance of civilization, during which culture, trade, and technology added to our capacity to reason and then refined our compassion. McCullough offers a superb history of charity. Ancient rulers and aristocrats paid little attention to the poor. Mostly arising during the first millennium B.C.E., world religions and philosophies gave rise to the golden rule; kindness to others became both virtuous and a mark of piety. Yet few doubted that poverty was “just another of life’s unpleasant inevitabilities” until after 1500, when urbanization and its accompanying squalor and disease convinced observers that it endangered social order, public health, and business, so government should take action. This gave rise to the first effective poor laws and national charitable institutions. By the 20th century, arguments for “natural rights and the dignity of all persons” produced both domestic social programs in developed nations and a steady stream of foreign aid. The 21st-century explosion of social media revolutionized philanthropy, allowing instant appeals and massive responses from “bathrobe humanitarians” sitting at their computers.

A deliciously provocative analysis of an entirely admirable human quality. (10 figures, 2 tables)

Kirkus Reviews