If you are interested in the research we are doing on compassion in organizations, you may also be interested in research and resources provided by a growing community of scholars, writers, and teachers interested in compassion, positive emotion, healing, growth, and vitality.

Center for Positive Organizations, University of Michigan
The Center for Positive Organizations is a community of scholars devoted to energizing and transforming organizations through research on the theory and practice of positive organizing and leadership.

The Greater Good Science Center, University of California at Berkeley
The GGSC is unique in its commitment to both science and practice: not only do we sponsor groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being, we help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives. Since 2001, we have been at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior—the science of a meaningful life. And we have been without peer in our award-winning efforts to translate and disseminate this science to the public.

The Appreciative Inquiry Commons, Case Western Reserve University
The Appreciative Inquiry Commons website is devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. AI assumes that every living system has many untapped, rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. In AI, the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.

The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford University
CCARE was established at Stanford University within the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences at the School of Medicine to support and conduct rigorous scientific studies of compassion and altruistic behavior. Drawing from several disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, economics and contemplative traditions, research at CCARE also examines methods for cultivating compassion and promoting altruism within individuals and society-wide.

Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania
Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The Positive Psychology Center promotes research, training, education, and the dissemination of Positive Psychology. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. Positive Psychology has three central concerns: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. Understanding positive emotions entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom. Understanding positive institutions entails the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, teamwork, purpose, and tolerance.

Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
We study people’s emotions, particularly their positive emotions. We are interested in how positive emotions affect people’s thinking patterns, social behavior, and physiological reactions. Our ultimate goal is to understand how positive emotions might accumulate and compound to transform people’s lives for the better.

Science of Virtues, The University of Chicago
The Arete Initiative at the University of Chicago began a $3 million research program on A New Science of Virtues in 2010. This multidisciplinary research initiative sought contributions from individuals and teams of investigators working within the humanities and the sciences. This project supports original, scholarly projects that contribute to Virtues research and have the potential to begin a new field of interdisciplinary study. This website serves as a hub for Virtues research, and provides updates on the ongoing research program.