Nothing like a random act of kindness to warm the heart! You're always taught these types of things growing up so it's funny to see how things change and also just how humans behave and tick.

A really special book.Random acts of kindness told in narrative style .I enjoyed reading about these acts& feel inspired by them.Would be a perfect for book club discussion.#netgalley #perseusbooks

McCullough is social scientist, not a philosopher. Although he writes with the disarming alacrity of a born optimist, The Kindness of Strangers is couched in hard, empirical fact. Beginning, suitably, at the beginning of life on earth, McCullough's book traces the origins of altruistic tendencies in various species, patiently explaining the theories of evolutionary psychologists and biologists as to why these tendencies might exist. The cumulative maxim is gloriously stark: "Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary."

Full review at Bookbrowse.com

Narrative non-fiction is one of my favorite niches and this book rings all the right bells. Lots of topics from psychology, biology, history, sociology are covered. It’s a little bit dry so I found myself scanning pages more than intensely reading, but even so, definitely worth the read.

Considering the challenging times we find ourselves in, this title called out to me. Indeed, the idea of the good Samaritan is tackled in these pages. It might seem strange, but the good Samaritan concept wasn’t always something worthy of applause and admiration, explains Michael E. McCullough, a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego.

Prior to reading this book, I hadn’t deeply contemplated the history of humans’ concern for the well-being of perfect strangers, but as the author notes, there is no analog for this behavior in the animal kingdom. And until 1500 or so, people assumed poverty was “just another of life’s unpleasant inevitabilities.” What happened then is what has happened since—our species has run across crisis after crisis, and we realized the only way to survive was to alter our behavior. So, we did.

In short, McCullough argues, we created an evolved moral sense via taking a reasoned approach. We decided that there’s not that much difference between our close relatives and strangers, and that meant someday strangers can help us if we are kind to them first. The “secret” ingredient here is reason. It’s why we rush to donate blood when there’s a disaster, and it’s why most industrialized nations commit 20% or more of their funding to social programs. We KNOW it’s the right thing to do.

For those who feel anxiety about one or more of the great challenges we face today—climate change, nationalism, mass migration, and more—this book offers ideas on how we might adapt our moral thinking to survive and thrive. And it wisely avoids lapsing into sentimentality or glibness along the way.

The Kindness of Strangers contains big ideas, but McCullough presents them in understandable ways with helpful anecdotes and well-explained theory. Some might find his ideas controversial, but the book is well-worth reading.

Happy book birthday #thekindnessofstrangers and thank you to #netgalley and Perseus Books for the ARC. I’ve been interested in effective altruism for a few years now and I decided to do some research into altruism itself. This book gives a ton of background on the various theories that scientists have proposed to explain altruism. It’s also heavy on the math, which I enjoyed. As a Christian, I have to admit that I’m still not sold on this idea of altruism without Jesus, but this book taught me a lot, made me think, and inspired me to keep learning.
#altruism #nonfictionreads

My Review of this book is I personally loved reading this book, especially all the amazing stories of random acts of kindness from around the world . Makes me realise that I need to do more acts of Kindness in my own Life.

I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars

An incredibly dense, insightful, and impactful scientific book, packed with facts about how evolution has shaped humanity. The book examines how cooperation and kindness have become ingrained in humans, because of it is evolutionarily advantageous. Showing kindness is literally in our nature, but it's not as simple as you might think, as kindness is derived from our tribal lineage, rather than a simple desire that can be understood. Selfishness has often been non-advantageous, and thus, has been weeded out to a large extent through natural selection.

I love evolutionary biology and anyone who is interested in the topic will gain a lot of insight from this book.

One of the best contemporary scientific books I've read recently. Full of interesting insights and enough appeal to keep the narrative flow. Recommended.