General Discussion

We started doing research, and now we have real evidence. We’ve done studies where we measure activity in the vagus nerve, which extends from our brainstems to our abdomens. This nerve is the physiological nexus with compassion, and when it’s active most of us feel warm expansion, the feeling we get when we are moved emotionally. The more your vagus nerve fires, the more compassion you feel.

In one study, we showed undergraduate students of different backgrounds pictures of kids with cancer. Students from lower-class backgrounds had a high vagus nerve response. But we didn’t get much response at all in upper-class students. In fact, in every study we’ve done poorer people show a stronger vagus nerve response. To me, that’s tough proof.
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Humans evolved to share. We’re meant to share, that’s how people survived in early hunter-gatherer societies. When you don’t share, you get tremendous social inequality, and that’s what’s going on today.

This inequality affects people’s health, and it affects our greater public health. When we study the emotional profiles of people from lower class backgrounds, there’s a lot of anxiety, a continual sense of being under threat, a sense of shame, a sense of being stigmatized. And that’s bad for your body and bad for your health.

But in this country, most of our political leaders—as well as those who influence them—are wealthy. And, in general, the wealthier they are the less interested they are in policies that help the needy.