The Rabbit Effect by Kelli Harding

THE RABBIT EFFECT by Kelli Harding describes how to “Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness.” Harding, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and emergency room doctor, sought to explore the question: “What are we missing in medicine that’s crucial to health?” and was inspired to write this book by a 1978 study which showed that rabbits who were treated more kindly by attendants had better health outcomes, despite being fed the same high-fat diet as others. Harding traces work that supports the holistic view that “a person’s health occurs in a social context that cannot be ignored” and argues that “two halves [medicine and public health] needed unification with a common language” since “the vast majority, 80 to 90 percent, of people’s health depends on factors outside clinical care.” Her book spends several chapters discussing hidden factors (for example, in our intimate relationships, our work, our education and neighborhoods) as well as the essentials of health, both individually and collectively. In a very accessible style, Harding recounts numerous scientific experiments and other anecdotes; raising questions (e.g., if genetics are fixed, why was love changing personality?) and offering “toolkit” suggestions for action by her readers. Although THE RABBIT EFFECT has no index, Harding does include almost 30 pages of source notes. This encouraging text will be of interest to AP Psych classes, perhaps to some of our anatomy students, and also relevant to this year’s professional development on social emotional learning, especially in conjunction with other titles like The War for Kindness or The Telomere Effect.  

The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki

THE WAR FOR KINDNESS is written by Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He explores “building empathy in a fractured world,” as also described in his interview with The Washington Post. In THE WAR FOR KINDNESS Zaki begins by discussing his own parents’ divorce and says, “that two people’s experiences could differ so drastically, yet both be true and deep, is maybe the most important lesson I’ve ever learned.” He then describes the different ways we respond with empathy, given that the “diameter of our concern … [now] encompasses the planet.” I was struck by his comments about the recent shift to a majority of people living in cities and in shrinking households so that “we see more people than ever before, but know fewer of them.” Employing a conversational tone and using many examples (ranging from convicts participating in a program called Changing Lives Through Literature to hospital employees avoiding burnout), Zaki continues with some of his subsequent chapters discussing The Stories We Tell, Caring Too Much and The Future of Empathy. There is an extensive website which accompanies THE WAR FOR KINDNESS. Videos there address five challenges: reverse the golden rule; spend kindly; disagree better; employ kind tech; and be a culture builder. 

Just under a third of the text is devoted to appendices, notes and index.  It is worth mentioning that one appendix deals with “Evaluating the Evidence” and includes a summary of each of the over four dozen claims made in the book, plus a rating on the claim’s strength and (for those with weaker ratings) a brief description of that reasoning. I found this section  - also available online - to be an extremely helpful summary; our Psych teachers and students will no doubt find it fascinating and inspirational to their research. In fact, I would suggest considering this title as a One School/One Book selection at the high school or college level with the option of including lesson plans like the related one posted by The New York Times or from Teaching Tolerance.  THE WAR FOR KINDNESS is excerpted in NPR’s recent review which praises Zaki’s compilation of research, and concludes: “To build empathy, one must have courage, engage in self-reflection, and harness the will to venture beyond isolation to the great unknown that is others.”  Huge, but worthwhile tasks for adolescents and the rest of us.

500 Words or Less by Juleah del Rosario

500 WORDS OR LESS by Juleah del Rosario is absolutely a new favorite young adult novel of mine.  I am looking forward to introducing students, other librarians, and even parents to this novel which is written in verse.  Del Rosario’s debut is a relatively quick and engaging read and I sincerely hope that it is nominated for state awards because I think that students will relate to the characters. Big themes have to do with loneliness, forgiveness, and especially with identity and discovering who we are, particularly when in high school. There is plenty of drama and shunning after a hook-up between biracial Nic Chen and her boyfriend’s best friend, Jordan.  Del Rosario explores the double standard:  “Was there even a male equivalent / to the word ‘whore’?  …. He didn’t have to wear/ Ra-Bans or Chuck Taylors, / or fluorescent-colored anything, / because the way he wore / his arrogance / was enough / to attract / his admirers.”

And when an unrelated video is edited and posted online, another female classmate says, “For a month, / every time I saw / a guy staring as his phone / for more than two minutes, / I thought he was watching / my video, watching / me.”  In response, Nic asks, “How many of us / had walked through these halls / and felt / exactly the same / as Miranda?”

500 WORDS OR LESS could be used as a One Room One Read book for advisees (homeroom students) and their parents, especially given some of the trauma related to issues of abandonment, of sexual relationships, and of alcohol abuse by both students and a parent. Overall, Del Rosario exhibits a fantastic ability to manipulate words, as shown by both the main text and the inclusion of college application essays which Nic writes for a variety of classmates. In addition to the quotes above, I highlighted many sections to discuss, like: “Why didn’t anyone tell me / how difficult / senior year would be? / How difficult it was to / sit in AP class after AP class, / swallowing facts / by the handful / until you just wanted to vomit / up your entire education.”   OR  “I should have known / a boy’s shrug / meant apathy, / not answers.  / But I wanted so badly / to be / all his answers.”  Look for 500 WORDS OR LESS in the library; del Rosario's acknowledgments include one more key quote: “let’s keep making the world a place where stories can thrive, knowledge is created, and everyone has access to both.”